Thankyou For Watching
by Storm-Eyes-Osprey
Summary: Bill Cipher leads two separate lives. Starbucks' self-proclaimed 'Professional Asshole' during the day, then Masked Youtuber, mIndscape, with a seemingly untraceable Identity at night. Somehow, Dipper Pines managed to get mixed up with both lives.
1. 1: Back to Gravity Falls

Well, I haven't posted anything in ages, so you can have some billdip trash to make up for my absence. In case you can't tell already, this is basically my Billdip Youtuber au. It's probably pretty bad compared to a lot of other fanfictions on here, but here it is, and I hope you enjoy. (Also, just as a note, this is set in a slight au style Gravity Falls, where there is no supernatural stuff, but there are still a lot of scientifically interesting things, so, for example, instead of a deer centaur type thing, there might just be a deer with a genetic mutation that gives it a half-formed extra leg, or something like that). Anyway though, you probably don't want to hear me rambling, so I'm going to shut up.

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 **Chapter One**

Dipper Pines, was, as could be vouched for by many people, one of the least likely people to take on work that would involve dealing with a large amount of people. Yet here he was, 21 years old, with a degree in Creative Writing, Halfway through writing his first novel, standing in the front door to Gravity Falls' very own Tourist Trap, The Mystery Shack. The main set of keys to the door sat in the palm of his hand, just another reminder that he was in charge. If someone had asked him 10 years ago where he wanted to be in life- He'd probably respond with anything but this.

But here he was, suddenly in ownership of Gravity Falls' biggest ripoff, and, to be perfectly honest, he had no idea what he was doing.

So maybe he had agreed with his Grunkle Stan to take over the Mystery Shack when he retired if he didn't have a job by then. But that didn't mean he was expecting for his Great uncle to retire in the exact few week interval when he was looking for a job. Stanley Pines, a certified con-man, who probably should be in jail for the kind of prices he sold t-shirts for, had only just left Dipper in the doorway to the Mystery Shack, and he was already feeling overwhelmed.

Dipper had expected to know what to do the moment he had stepped through the door. After all, he had worked in the Mystery Shack almost every summer since he was 12 years old, alongside his twin sister Mabel. Granted though, he never really did much work inside of the actual Shack. Dipper much prefered to explore the woods that surrounded the town, following the observations made in a Journal, filled with notes made by his Grunkle Stan's brother, Stanford Pines, who was killed before Dipper or Mabel were born, when an experiment involving the seemingly impossible cliffs that framed the entrance to the town backfired in a catastrophic way. Stanford's Journal still remained, however, detailing all the scientific phenomena that he has discovered over his years spent in Gravity Falls, and his extensive notes were now combined with Dipper's own handwriting, as he filled in any blank spots and corrected results and readings; his understanding of the town's strange features growing along with his intelligence every year.

Now that he was back in Gravity Falls, however, Dipper was unsure of what to do. No longer with the freedom to spend his days in the woods, and a half-finished draft for a book his only current prospect for income, he would need to find a way to earn money, and the Mystery Shack was, at this point in time, his only decent chance of doing so.

Faced with the sudden realisation of what he had gotten himself into, Dipper was, to put it simply, more than overwhelmed. To the point where he felt as if he would be sick. Pulling open the door to the Shack that was apparently his home now, Dipper dragged his Laptop out of his bag and made his way into the nearest room that had the closest thing to a desk; which just happened to be Stan's office.

"Or my office now, I should say." Dipper mused out loud to himself, his voice cutting through the silence painfully, and causing him to flinch out of fear of disturbing someone, even though he was the only one there. He instantly regretted the statement, as it only caused the wave of sickness to rise even higher, the realization that he was in charge of the Mystery Shack just causing him even more worry. Dropping the laptop down onto the desk and opening up Skype, Dipper was relieved to see that Mabel was online. Moral support and Optimism was what Dipper needed right now, and that was what Mabel seemed to do best. That, and coming up with obscure colour combinations that could probably give someone cataracts just from looking at the clothing designs she created.

Pressing the call button, Dipper waited, then almost laughed out of relief as Mabel's face popped up on the screen, a grin decorating her face. Some things had changed about Mabel since her and Dipper had last spent the summer at the Mystery shack- her hair had been cut to shoulder length and was currently laced through with purple streaks, which dipper could have sworn were blue only a few days ago, and a large pair of round, pink-framed reading glasses balanced on her nose as she leaned close to the screen and practically yelled into the computer.

"Hey DipDop!" After all, only _some_ things had changed. Dipper raised his hand and waved wearily into the webcam, pushing his own glasses back up the bridge of his nose before responding.

"Hey, Mabes." He yawned, running a hand through his hair, which was sticking up in the air, seeming to defy the laws of physics. Dipper was pretty certain by now that his hair was a sentient being. "I just got the keys to the Mystery Shack and Grunkle Stan's just sort of left me here." Mabel leaned back and folded her hands behind her head, rocking back slightly on her spinning chair, giving Dipper a glance of her sweater of choice for the day- Neon pink with a Lime green cat on the front. Classy.

"Aww Lucky you, DipDop! You've got the whole place to yourself and I'm still stuck here with my stinky room-mate." There was a disgruntled noise from across the other side of the room, and Mabel swung around on her chair waving to whoever had made the noise. "I'm just kidding Pacifica! You know I love you really, even if you do smell!" Mabel spun back around to face the webcam, and Dipper sighed in exasperation.

"It's really not that amazing, you know. I have absolutely no idea what I'm doing here! I don't know whether I'll be able to get away with ripping people off like Grunkle Stan did, so I'm going to have to find a whole new way of running this place. I need some help, or at least some support." Mabel paused, evidently thinking, then shuffled forwards aggressively on her spinning chair and slammed her hands down onto her desk so loud that Dipper was concerned about whether she has shattered all the bones in her hands.

"You know the woods really well, DipDop, so why not run tours of them? Show people all the science nerd stuff, you know- take them to see the cliffs, that weird rare grass you got excited about, that deer with five legs that you kept spotting. People would totally pay to see that- and you get to rant about all your nerd stuff!" A spark of hope lit inside of Dipper, and he grinned at his sister.

"Mabes, that might actually work! I could do that! Oh wow you might be onto something here." Mabel shrugged in response.

"It was just an idea, no need to worship me over it." A wicked grin spread across the twin's face. "Actually, who am I kidding- it was brilliant." Dipper laughed lightly, then reached over to flick the webcam.

"How do I even put up with you." Dipper reached up to attempt to flatten his hair again, then turned back to his computer. "How should I advertise it though? People know this place as the Mystery Shack, and to be perfectly honest, the sort of people who would visit for the tacky fake exhibits that Grunkle Stan would display probably wouldn't exactly be interested in being dragged around the forest. I need to find a way of drawing in a new audience." Mabel paused again, tangling her hand in her hair in thought, however she was interrupted as another face joined her's on the screen, the face of Mabel's enemy-turned-best-friend-and-roommate, Pacifica Northwest, her blonde hair ruffled from what must have been a swift movement across the room, her golden hoop earrings swinging lightly.

"You should make a Youtube channel, Dipper! Everyone watches Youtube, so if you filmed some videos of the stuff you can see in Gravity falls, people would be sure to see it and be interested!" Mabel nodded in agreement to Pacifica's suggestion.

"That's a great idea! Then me and Pacifica could see what you're getting up to as well." Dipper paused, thinking the idea over in his head. He had never really had much experience with youtube- aside from the stupid channel he posted videos on when he was 12- so he didn't really have any idea how it worked. But what Mabel and Pacifica were saying was true- it would be a good way to bring attention to the tours that he would soon be running from the Mystery Shack. Plus recording himself saying some stuff about each of Gravity Falls' Phenomena would give him some practice for the things he would be saying in the tour.

"That sounds like a good idea- thankyou, Pacifica!" He confirmed, and the blonde-haired female shrugged modestly, then waved and stood up to walk back to her side of the room, pushing Mabel's chair as she walked so that it spun around slightly, a startled laugh escaping the brunette, who almost went toppling off the chair.

"There you go, Bro-Bro. No need to worry! You have this sorted!" Mabel spoke as soon as she had righted herself, and Dipper nodded his head slightly.

"I guess I did panic a little too much. Thankyou; you really helped." Mabel grinned.

"No problem! Anything to help my Bro-Bro! Plus now I can get you to watch some really great youtubers that I've been trying to get you to watch for ages!" Dipper rolled his eyes as Mabel began to list off a long monologue of youtube channel names, none of which he planned on ever watching, as Mabel had been attempting to get him to for years. "Oh, I know which one you'd love. You should check out mIndscape's channel. He does some really interesting stuff that I think you'd like." Despite trying to drown out the name along with the other ones, Dipper found his attention caught, and he made a motion of agreement.

"Yeah, sure. I'll take a look at them." By which, he meant that he'd probably only check out the final name. 'mIndscape'. Mabel smiled at him, then paused, looking up at the clock that hung on the wall in her and Pacifica's brightly coloured room, in the University where the two of them were studying on the same Design course.

"Sorry DipDop, I have to head along to a class- go and do your nerd stuff- you'll be great!" Dipper opened his mouth to say goodbye to his sister, but the brunette shut off the call before he could, leaving the room in silence again.

However this time, the silence was punctuated by the noises of his fingers skimming across the keyboard as Dipper went through the sign-up procedure for Youtube, the red and white colour scheme glaring back at him through the screen as he raced through the steps, an unexpected surge of excitement as he moved his cursor into the area that would allow him to name his channel. He hesitated, thinking of what exactly to put as the name of what would probably be his main way of drawing in income. Glancing off to the side, he saw the journal, sitting in the hallway. Sticking slightly out of his bag, the golden, six-fingered with the number three written upon it was clearly visible, and a spark of inspiration struck him. The perfect name for his channel. A wide smile passed across his face as his fingers flew over the keyboard once more.

 _Channel Name: Journal Number 4_

As Dipper clicked to submit the name, he felt a small wave of satisfaction pass over him. He was getting things done. He was going to do things for himself. He was going to make the Mystery Shack his own place to run and come up with ideas for. At that point, Dipper probably should have attempted to get some writing done, or study the Journals, or at least draft some stuff up for what would be his first video, but he couldn't bring himself to. Far too hyped up on energy to even attempt calm productivity, Dipper made the decision to stick on youtube for a little while longer, his fingers hovering over the keys as he pondered over what to search for.

 _mIndscape_

The name popped into his head once again, and Dipper made up his mind, typing the name into the searchbar and observing what turned up. The first thing was a link to what was obviously the channel that Mabel was recommending to him. The first thing that Dipper took note of was the subscriber count of the channel- close to one million. Next, he noted the profile picture the account- what seemed to be of a man with an unruly wave of blonde hair, his face hidden by a triangular shaped mask with a single eye in the middle- a crude representation of what most people would know as the symbol of the Illuminati. Upon further investigation of the channel, he found that the owner of it produced a huge variety of content, from Playthroughs of games to dramatic readings of Horror Stories, he seemed to do everything, but what seemed to make mIndscape unusual to so many people was that not one person had any clue of who he was. Not once had he shown his face or used his real voice in a video, always disguised behind the Illuminati mask and a voice filter that warped his voice into a high-pitched tone that resonated back onto itself in echo-like tones. The evidently successful youtuber also seemed to be far from sane, his game commentaries especially spitting out some lines that could be passed off as borderline psychotic, namely on one video, which was simply a montage of him dying in as many ways as possible in the space of five minutes, with added narrations that were mainly high-pitched bouts of warped laughter. Dipper was simultaneously disturbed and entranced by this strange person- who, in his mind, was a challenge, a code, a puzzle, one that he wouldn't be able to rest on until he cracked.

Dipper coughed to himself, reminding himself that this was another human being he was talking about, not a new, strange species of moss he found in the woods and wanted to probe with a stick to see what it did. If mIndscape wants anonymity, then he would give him his privacy. Clicking through some of the extra tabs on mIndscape's channel, Dipper came across the 'About' section, and read it through.

 _"HEY MINDSCAPE HERE. BEFORE YOU EVEN ASK, NO I WILL NOT SHOW MY FACE OR VOICE ON ANY OF MY VIDEOS. NEITHER WILL I SEND A DRAWING, PHOTO, COLLAGE, FLESH CARVING OR ANY OTHER ENVISIONMENT OF MY FACE TO YOU. NOR WILL I SEND YOU A RECORDING, WAVE GRAPH OR SCREAM OF ETERNAL DAMNATION FROM THE DEMONS THAT LODGE INSIDE ALL OF OUR EYEBALLS TO DEPICT MY VOICE. MY ANONYMITY MAKES ME FEEL POWERFUL AND I ENJOY IT. FEEL FREE TO TRY AND FIGURE OUT WHO I AM THOUGH. GO ON. I DARE YOU."_

Well wasn't that just infuriating.

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Yeah, I'm sorry it's so bad


	2. 2: Floating Cliffs

Wow, okay, so the first chapter of this trash fanfiction received really good reception, and I'm super grateful that you all took the time to read, comment, follow and favourite my trashy writing- Thankyou so much!

Also, in the description I give for a non-supernatural way of the cliffs forming, I've probably messed up a little bit on the science, but if I have, please just ignore it- it was the only way I could think of to have them form like that when there is no supernatural activity in Gravity Falls in this au thing.

* * *

 **Chapter Two**

Dipper had planned to push the infuriating youtuber out of his mind and go back to doing something productive. However, that didn't seem to restrain him from sitting for another three hours, watching mIndscape's videos. By then, he had begun to grow used to the disturbing comments that played in warped voices on the videos, and instead of placing all his attention on the unusual content that the videos held, he focused on the actual person sitting in front of the camera. Dipper had soon found a reason for the Illuminati mask that mIndscape wore- he had yet to find a video that hadn't made some form of Illuminati confirmed joke, and wearing a large yellow triangle on his face seemed to be the best way for the youtuber to accompany his own jokes. He also noticed the strange clothes that mIndscape seemed to wear- formal clothing such as waistcoats and sweater vests, all in obnoxious yellow, accompanied by a neat black bow tie that he seemed to wear in every single video.

However, Dipper knew that he couldn't sit and observe mIndscape in search of a clue to who he was all day- although he would have liked to- so he dragged himself away from the computer screen and set about writing down a script for his first video and a section of the tour.

Pulling a clump of lined paper out of a paper-rack that sat on the desk, he swept out into the hallway to grab Journal number 3 out of his bag, his legs protesting as he stood up. Flipping through the book's well-worn pages, Dipper's eyes skimmed over all the things he could incorporate into his tour. His eyes eventually settled on the page for the seemingly impossible cliffs that framed Gravity Falls' skyline, the split between the two large faces of rock making it look as if they had been created in a way that wasn't natural. The cliffs, however, had been Dipper's first major addition to the Journal- the original Author had been unable to finish his notes on the page due to the accident that occurred while he was researching them, and Dipper had managed to fill in the gaps one summer, when he was 15 years old.

Chewing on the end of his pen as he paused between sentences, Dipper began to write out notes about the cliffs, about how soft rock and an ancient waterfall that had long since dried up had contributed to the odd shape of the cliffs and valley beyond it.

He sat for at least 2 hours, rehearsing and reading over what he was going to say, his heart pulsing at a slightly faster rate out of nerves as he reminded himself that his business and the sort of people it attracted could rest on the videos he produced. Drawing in a heavy sigh after what was probably his twentieth readthrough of the script he had planned out for himself, Dipper stood up again, shaking the stiffness from his legs as he did so. Quickly emptying out the clothes and unnecessary items that sat in his bag onto the hallway floor, he picked up the Journal, his script and a few pens and sheets of paper, before moving into the giftshop and picking up a camera off the shelf, pocketing a few spare batteries too as he put them both into his satchel-style bag, and headed over to the door, before something on one of the shelves caught his eye.

The blue and white hats, decorated with a Pine-tree mural still sat on the shelf, as they had every summer as for as long as Dipper had been coming to Gravity Falls. Dipper had lost his own one of these hats at some point before he'd left for university- from what Mabel had told him, it was even a possibility that his parents had disposed of it; they had never really approved of him wearing it. But now, here they were. Ready for him to take one. Reaching out, Dipper took one of the hats off the shelf and pulled it down over his hair, the brown strands curling wildly out from the sides of it just as they had done when he was a lot younger. Moving over to a mirror that sat propped against the wall, Dipper regarded himself, jeans faded slightly, bag hanging by his side, sleeves of his red plaid shirt rolled up to his elbows, displaying the tattoos that Mabel had designed for him, Locks, keys and strange patterns decorating both of his arms, his brown hair curling out from underneath the blue and white hat, square framed reading glasses balanced on his nose. The Pine Tree hat seemed to jolt Dipper back to the mindset of adventure, the realization that he was back in Gravity Falls for good kicking in fully; the brunet finding himself excited at the prospect of heading back into the woods again.

Dipper smiled nervously at his reflection, adjusted his bag, and walked out of the door to the Mystery Shack.

He recited the script of the video under his breath as he walked through the woods, the sunlight dappling the ground as it filtered through the pine leaves, the light and shadows shifting around him in calming patterns. Heading up to the hilled area that gave a perfect view of the cliffs, he let his gaze flicker back over the town, making a mental note to go and walk around and see what had changed as soon as he had filmed and edited his first video.

Upon reaching the hill, Dipper searched for somewhere to prop his camera, eventually setting it down on a pile of rocks that he hastily constructed, just stable enough to keep the shot steady. Taking a deep breath and letting his gaze skim over the script one last time, he pressed record and stepped back into place.

"Hello, watchers! My name is Dipper Pines, and this-" He was cut off as a gust of wind swept over the hilltop and knocked the camera off the pile of rocks he had constructed, then the pile toppling soon after, also falling to the ground. Letting out a noise of exasperation, he ran over, stopping the recording and began to restack the stones, trying to make it more stable this time. Repositioning the camera, he attempted to start recording again, taking a deep breath to calm himself down and reminding himself to bring a proper tripod next time he filmed. It took 5 attempts for him to actually get past the introduction to the video- he kept stumbling or messing up his lines or dropping the camera, however on the sixth try, he managed to get through the intro without a problem, only to realize that he hadn't even set the camera to record. He was quickly becoming fed up with this whole recording business. Letting out a final, angry sigh, he aggressively stabbed the record button, and started again.

"Hello, watchers! My name is Dipper Pines, and this behind me is Gravity Falls. I've started this youtube channel to document some of the strange and scientifically intriguing attractions that this town holds. In this video, I'll be explaining the odd formation behind me- the floating cliffs." With those words, Dipper launched into an explanation of how he had discovered that the cliffs had been formed due to an odd formation of hard and soft rock in the cliffs, so that when an ancient waterfall carved out the shape of the valley, it cut away the soft rock, leaving only the hard rock behind, resulting in the strange shape. He then went on to talk about how he had discovered this, by finding traces of the softer rock on the edges of the cliffs, before rounding up the video with a bit of self-promotion.

"If you enjoyed learning about the cliffs, then, if you're ever travelling close to Gravity Falls, Oregon, then don't be afraid to stop by at the Mystery Shack where I will be running tours that will not only show you the cliffs, but also many other of Gravity Falls' scientific phenomena. I hope you enjoyed, and thankyou for watching!" Walking over, Dipper pressed the button to stop the camera recording, and exhaled heavily in relief. One video done. Deciding that he would also need some other things for his channel, Dipper picked up the camera and took a photo of the cliffs, then angled the camera so that he was included in the photo, the view of the entire town his backdrop- an image that he would use as his profile picture.

Gathering up his things, pushing the camera back into his bag, Dipper made his way back through the woods towards the Mystery Shack. Once he had made it back through the door, he headed straight over to his computer, browsing the internet to try and find the best free Video Editing software that he could, eventually settling on one to download. As it was loading, he searched for a lead that would allow him to download his video footage onto the computer. It took a lot longer than he expected for the video to edit and export, but Dipper ended up with a fully produced video, one which he was, admittedly, very proud of. The video may have been a little unfocused or shaky in some points, and there were parts when his voice evidently faltered, but for a first serious video, it was definitely decent. Switching over from the editing program into youtube, Dipper clicked the option to upload the video, and typed in the appropriate information, entitling the video 'Floating Cliffs' and typing up some information about the cliffs and the Mystery Shack in the description, before, once again, sitting back and waiting for it to upload.

Opening up another tab, Dipper found himself subconsciously switching back over to mIndscape's channel, scrolling back through into some of his earlier videos, watching through a few of them, before his video finished uploading. He then set his profile picture and channel art that he had taken up by the cliffs, folded his hands behind his head, and went back to waiting. He really should have attempted to make some progress in his writing, however one of mIndscape's videos was still sitting, paused, in another tab, constantly beckoning to him. Flipping back over to the video, he made a note over how this anonymous youtuber had every right to feel powerful over the fact that nobody knew his identity. He pretty much had Dipper, and most likely many other people, addicted to finding out who he was. Dipper looked down towards the option to subscribe to the channel, and hovered his mouse over it.

'I'm doing it for research' He thought to himself, before clicking the subscribe button. Pushing away from the desk again, Dipper stood up and walked across the room, swinging his bag back over his shoulder, collecting up some money and resolving to head into the actual town to buy some food, only just noticing that he'd managed to completely forget to eat lunch.

As Dipper made his way down into the main street, he noticed a few changes that had taken place in the time he'd been away. The most noticeable thing was that there were a few new shops in place, and some of the old businesses had been redecorated. The whole town looked a lot fresher in general since the brown-haired male had last visited, the new facilities definitely something Dipper would have to look into at a later date.

"Dipper?" There was a questioning remark from across the street, and Dipper glanced across in surprise to see a figure with a sweep of red hair dart across the road and pull him into a hug that he thought was about to crush his ribs. "Holy shit, man, it's been years since I've seen you!" Dipper took a step back as the person released him, and looked them disbelievingly up and down.

"Oh my god, Wendy! I haven't seen you in such a long time!" The woman had shorter hair than Dipper remembered, however that was pretty much all that had changed about her since Dipper had last seen her, over 3 years ago. She still had the same stature and glint in her eyes that made her seem unpredictable in a fun sort of way, and, of course, she was still wearing flannel- by now, Dipper was pretty certain Wendy's wardrobe consisted solely of the stuff.

"I know, right! We're going to have to catch up at some point. What're you doing back in Gravity Falls anyway? I thought you were at University." Wendy inquired to Dipper, placing a hand on her hip as she rocked back on her heels, waiting for an answer.

"Grunkle Stan retired from running the Mystery Shack, so I'm in charge now. I'm going to be running tours of the woods, and I've just started a youtube channel to document some of the stuff I've found." Dipper explained.

"Woah, neat! So you've got the whole place to yourself then?" Dipper nodded in response to Wendy's question, and she continued speaking."I'll have to go and check out those tours you'll be running, and that youtube channel of yours- it sounds like it'll be great!" Wendy lifted her hand to indicate the shopping bags in her hand. "I'm going to have to head off and take this lot home, but we need to have dinner and catch up on everything at some point, yeah? See you, Dipper!"

"Yeah, that'd be great. Bye, Wendy!" Dipper watched at the red-haired female left, reflecting back on the time when he was 12, when prospects of having dinner with Wendy would have probably caused him to have a seizure out of excitement. Shuddering at the memory of his first summer in Gravity Falls, when he had developed an embarrassing crush on the former Mystery Shack worker, he reminded himself that everything was all good between the two of them- they had become nothing more than good friends as the years progressed and Dipper came to the realization of how childish his crush on Wendy was.

Smiling slightly to himself, feeling a lot more secure about being back in Gravity Falls now that he had seen a familiar face, Dipper made his way down the street, spotting a Starbucks that had been constructed on one side of the road, which definitely hadn't been there three years ago. He Shrugged, and headed into the shop. Dipper decided that Coffee would most likely give him the boost that he needed to develop motivation to write, and pulled some money out of his bag, not even needing to check over the menu board to know what he wanted to buy. After all, he had spent the majority of his University years in Starbucks, living off espressos and unhealthily small amounts of sleep. However, once he got to the counter, he stopped halfway through opening his mouth to speak as he looked up from pulling the money from his bag, and his gaze fell upon the person behind the counter.

He found himself looking directly at a man with a slightly tanned face, cheeks dusted with freckles, framed by a sweep of blonde hair that fell slightly over one of his golden-coloured eyes. The Starbucks apron he wore was draped over a plain white shirt that was rolled up to his elbows, a name badge that read 'Professional Asshole' pinned to the apron, and a pair of earrings in the shape of small golden triangles were clipped to his ears. The man standing behind the counter looked almost ethereal; as if he didn't quite belong amongst the human race, and Dipper found himself almost forgetting how to speak.

"Are you going to order, or are you just going to stare at me all day?" Dipper's face flushed as the man behind the counter spoke, and he cleared his throat awkwardly, ordering hastily, rushing his words, all the while internally cursing himself.

 _'Great job, Dipper Pines. You see an attractive person and instantly become a highschool movie cliche. A+ first impression right there.'_

The person behind the counter nodded, then moved off to make the drink, leaving Dipper to stand and wallow in his own shame. As soon as his coffee was ready, Dipper shoved the money across the counter towards the blonde-haired male, then picked up his drink and walked hastily out of the shop, already feeling his face burning with embarrassment. Looking down at the drink in his hand, Dipper noticed in surprise that there was something scrawled in sharp-edged yet neat handwriting on the side of his cup. Turning his hand, he glanced down at the writing.

Like what you see, Pine Tree?

And Dipper thought it wasn't possible to be any more embarrassed than he already was.

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Ahh yes so much trash. I'm really sorry if this turned out bad- and thankyou so much for reading this chapter!


	3. 3: mIndscape

Wow, Okay, so again, I got so much positive feedback on the last chapter? I'm actually so happy that you're all enjoying my trash fanfiction! Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter- I'm not too happy with how it turned out, and I apologize in advance for any grammar mistakes or any mess-ups in general, because I have a feeling that there's probably a few in this chapter, but hopefully you'll like it!

* * *

 **Chapter Three**

As soon as the flustered man in the pine-tree hat had left the shop, Bill Cipher, Starbucks worker by day, Youtuber by night, broke out into a wicked smirk that immediately attracted the attention of one of his co-workers. A tall woman with long black hair, whose name Bill could never quite remember, walked over to him, a frustrated look on her face, calling out a warning to the blonde-haired male.

"Bill, for god's sake, stop flirting with the customers." Bill shrugged nonchalantly, indicating exactly how little intention he had of obeying the instructions.

"I was hardly flirting with him. Just making an observation." The black-haired woman simply glared at him in a way that simply stated _'I'm not even going to bother'_ , and walked away again, earning an even wider grin from the blonde.

Bill was used to receiving the same sort of reaction from many of his co-workers, no matter what the situation. After all, the blonde was Starbuck's professional asshole, as his name-badge read, and it was honestly a miracle he hadn't been fired yet. When he wasn't flirting with customers, he was talking back or insulting them, and the fact that he'd managed to keep his job for longer than 2 months was probably a contender to be the 8th wonder of the world.

Even if he did get fired though, it's not that it would matter. He had the potential to make a lot of money, but if he did that, people would get curious. People would realize things. Obsessive fans are always the best at figuring things out. Starbucks was just a way of wasting time, nothing more than a cover story, then as soon as his shift would end, it would be back to his room, back to his recording equipment and back to doing what he did best.

Youtube had started off as a hobby for Bill, however now, it had almost become his safe space- somewhere he could say what he wanted and do what he wanted, and nobody would ever know that it was him.

For all the internet knew, mIndscape could be anyone.

As his shift of work drew to a close, Bill stretched his arms above his head, the joints making a cracking noise, the long-haired employee who had scolded him earlier sending him a disturbed look as he proceeded to twist and make cracking noises with the joints in his neck, arms and fingers. Oh how he loved making people feel uncomfortable. He untied the apron he wore and shoved it back into his bag, which he then picked off the floor and slung over his shoulder, waving at the other workers behind the counter before sweeping through the door and out into the street.

Walking along the street and back to his apartment, Bill hummed lightly under his breath, hands swinging by his sides. He always seemed to walk with a spring in his step when he left work- the people around him would probably just pass it off as him being happy to be heading home, however in reality, it was Bill's way of keeping himself psyched up, keeping himself awake. He ran on a small amount of sleep the majority of the time, and it would be no good if he looked or sounded tired on any of his videos.

As soon as Bill got back into his apartment, he dumped his bag on the bed, kicked off his shoes and got straight to work, pulling a yellow sweater and his bow tie out of his draws, throwing them both on over the shirt he was already wearing, then reaching to the back of the draw and fishing out the most important element of his videos. The mask.

The Illuminati mask had started out as a joke- his brother had bought it for him for ironic reasons, and he'd decided to wear it in a video, just to see how many people he could confuse. However, the mask had grown on him, and had pretty much become one of the quintessential parts of his videos- the thing that everyone recognised him for.

Mask on and clothes checked in the mirror, Bill then moved into his 'recording room', which was essentially a large cupboard-under-the-stairs-type structure that was built into the wall when he'd moved into the apartment, that he'd taken the shelves out of and installed his computer and recording equipment into, so he could record in peace without risk of anyone finding his stuff.

Logging onto his computer, Bill flicked instinctively onto skype, scrolling through his messages. Despite the fact that the youtuber was very selective about who he chose to share his skype details with, he seemed to have picked the people who were least afraid to spam him with messages, as he came back to see 8 messages from 'Kryptos', all of which were written in some sort of code (Bill decided not to bother answering those) 5 from '8 Ball', a long stream of complaints about Bananas, 3 from 'Pyronica' about accidentally setting fire to a desk, and one missed call from his brother Will. That was the only one that Bill decided would be worth responding to later.

Deciding that skype was a lost cause, Bill flipped back over to youtube, deciding to check up on the comments and subscribers he had gained over the day. As expected, there was nothing new- an unnecessarily large amount of 'Illuminati confirmed' jokes, Lots of the typical 'Will you reveal your face any time soon?!' comments, and a few hate messages, which he took screenshots of so he could go back and laugh at them later. Scrolling through the icons and usernames of the new subscribers, Bill found himself on the verge of falling asleep, however, towards the end of the list, an icon caught his attention, the familiarity of the person it displayed startling to him. Clicking on the username, 'Journal Number 4', Bill found his suspicions confirmed. The owner of the channel was, indeed, Pine Tree.

A slight spark of panic struck Bill. Had the man in the Pine Tree hat figured out who he was? Had he recognized him in Starbucks then subscribed to him as a way of telling him that he knows who he is? Scrolling quickly back through the list of times that people had subscribed to him, Bill let out a relieved exhalation. Pine Tree had subscribed before seeing him in Starbucks. It was just a coincidence. No different to the other people in Gravity Falls that Bill knew watched his videos but had no idea that mIndscape had probably sold them coffee at some point.

Laughing quietly to himself, the sound muffled by the mask pressing against his face, Bill clicked back onto Pine Tree's youtube channel, deciding to have a quick look around it before getting back to actually producing some video content. From the looks of it, the channel was fairly new, with only one video posted only a few hours ago as content. However, it was, indeed, still a video, so naturally, Bill decided to watch it. Clicking on the video title 'Floating Cliffs?' lead the blonde to a video of Pine Tree, standing up on the hill that reared up out of the ground at one end of Gravity Falls, the backdrop of the cliffs behind him most likely stunning to anyone watching who didn't get to see them every single day. In the video, Pine Tree, or Dipper Pines, as his name turned out to be, explained the phenomena of the cliffs and how they were formed, something which, admittedly, Bill didn't know before watching the video. Pausing the video as Pine Tree walked towards the camera to alter the angle of it and give a better view of the cliffs, Bill surveyed the man on the screen up and down with a scrutinizing gaze. He hadn't really taken much note of the brunet's appearance when he'd been mocking him earlier, so now was the perfect opportunity for him to get a proper look at this newcomer to the town.

The first thing that he spotted, that he didn't notice in the shop earlier was the fact that Pine Tree had tattoos up both of his arms, complex spirals and patterns of keys and locks and triangles looping around his arms and disappearing into the sleeves of his shirt. The next thing was the way his hair flipped out from underneath the hat he wore, looking as if it had never made contact with a brush before. Next he pressed play on the video, and watched through it some more, observing the way the small smile on the brunet's face seemed to call out his awkwardness, then the way that his glasses seemed a little too big for him and slipped down his face, and the way that he scratched the back of his neck awkwardly while he was talking.

Bill wasn't going to lie. Pine Tree was pretty cute.

Bill sat back in his chair and yawned widely, before leaning over and clicking the subscribe button on Pine Tree's channel then scrolling down and commenting on the video too.

 _'NICE VIDEO- THOSE CLIFFS ARE PRETTY NEAT. I WONDER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY BROKE AND FELL'_ Like the mask, Bill's use of caps lock had started out as irony, but eventually just became regular procedure on his channel. The Blonde-haired youtuber smirked to himself behind the mask. He'd taken a liking to Pine Tree, and he knew that this would be one way to catch his attention. Peering up at the calendar that he had pinned to the wall above his computer, Bill took note of the video he had scheduled for that night. Another gaming video. Shrugging, and pulling up the game he had planned, Bill stretched his arms, feeling the joints pop satisfyingly, almost wishing that there was someone in the recording room with him so that he could see the disgusted expressions on their faces, then flicked on the camera and voice recorder, and began to play.

Bill wrapped up the recording about an hour later, before standing up and stretching once more, shaking out his cramped legs and flipping the mask up to rest on top of his head. The mask was fairly easy to wear, however spending over an hour with it covering his face was always a strain. He then left the recording room and headed into the kitchen, rummaging around the cupboards and refrigerator, pouring some leftover pasta from the night before and sticking it in the microwave to reheat. Despite having very little time to do so, Bill always made sure to keep a healthy eating schedule, often making a lot more food than he needed to so that he had a stock of leftovers for the days when he had less time or motivation to cook. Jumping up to sit on the kitchen counter, Bill swung his legs slightly as he ate the pasta. He left the bowl in the sink as a reminder to clean it later, then flipped the mask back over his face and headed back into the recording room to start the long editing process for the video. He always started with the voice filter, layering and pitching his voice to create an echoing tone, then flipped through the footage he took, selecting only the best sections until he narrowed the hour of filming to about 7 minutes of video content, then fitting it all together. It took him a few hours, but, by the time it was 10:30, Bill had a fully-produced video, ready for exporting and uploading.

Setting the video up to export, Bill flicked back onto his youtube tab, grinning to himself as he noticed that Pine Tree had replied to his comment. The blonde let out a snort of laughter at how awkward the brown-haired male was when it came to responding to him.

 _'Oh wow okay I didn't expect to actually get to talk to you oh gosh I'm actually quite a big fan of your videos, but I'm sure a lot of people tell you that and you're probably fed up of hearing it so I'll not say that okay I'm sorry. I'm glad you like my video though- and, if the cliffs fell, I'd expect that the direction they fell would greatly determine the effect of that. If they fell away from the town, then there would be a lot of debris and possibly structural damage close to the site of impact, but hopefully nothing too bad, but if they fell onto Gravity falls- then let's just say that there wouldn't be much Gravity Falls left to speak about. Wow, I'm so sorry I'm rambling I'm just going to be quiet now okay.'_

Bill found it endearing, how awkward the brunet was, and affirmed to himself that making him embarrassed would be something that he would enjoy doing. Plus the fact that he had actually bothered to answer his musings rather than just pass them off as insane rambling was pretty nice of him. Either he was ridiculously polite, or was used to some pretty weird shit. Based off the fact that he seemed to be living in the Mystery shack, it was most likely the latter. Bill decided that Pine Tree was definitely worth sending a reply to.

 _'IT'S ALL GOOD. YOU SEEM PRETTY INTERESTING, SO YOU CAN TALK TO ME IF YOU WANT. AND THE STUFF ABOUT THE CLIFFS FALLING WAS INTERESTING TOO. THANKS FOR EXPLAINING AND GIVING ME MORE WAYS THROUGH WHICH I COULD CAUSE MASS DESTRUCTION.'_

After responding to Pine Tree, Bill decided that he wasn't going to get anything done by sitting around and waiting for his video to export, so, after quickly sending an apologetic message to his brother for not calling him back, he headed out of the recording room and into the main room of the apartment and flopped out on the couch that sat there. The Blonde flicked through the TV channels for a while, then headed back into the kitchen, pulling some ingredients and equipment out and dropping it out onto the counter. Throwing together the ingredients for pancakes, Bill picked up his phone from the pocket of his jeans and turned the volume on, setting it to play some music while he cooked. Dancing around the kitchen slightly, Bill cooked pancakes until he'd ran out of batter, then threw the dirty equipment into the sink and turning the tap on so that it would steep in the warm water until he could wash it properly. The youtuber then placed the pancakes into the fridge for the next morning, keeping one out for eating. Bill ate the still-warm pancake as he walked back into his recording room, his steps moving in time to the music that still played softly from the kitchen, noting that the exporting process was almost complete.

Sitting back in his chair, Bill pulled up the menu that would allow him to upload the video, and, once the familiar ping that indicated that the video was ready sounded into the recording room, he submitted it, selecting the file and typing in the description and title box, choosing a thumbnail and leaving it to upload. Checking the time on his computer, 11:50 pm, Bill rubbed his eyes and pulled the mask off completely, closing the door to the recording room, planning to leave the video to upload overnight, then he would wake up at 3:30 to submit at his designated video-posting time of 3:33 am, then sleep again until he had to go out to work.

The things he did to keep up the triangle theme.

* * *

Well, I hope that you enjoyed reading the trash, and I'm super sorry if it's bad!


	4. 4: Passing Notes

Guess who can't name chapters? Yes it's me.

Anyway, I'm back with the next installment of trash. Seriously though, so many of you have read and followed, favourited and commented on this, and I don't know where you all came from or why you want to read the trash au, but thankyou so much?  
Again, I hope you like, and I apologize in advance for any bad writing, ooc-ness or grammar mistakes!

* * *

 **Chapter 4**

His first night of sleeping in the Mystery shack in three years, and Dipper didn't even make it up to an actual bed. The brunet managed to fall asleep halfway through writing a chapter of his book, and woke up early the next morning with his face pressed against the keyboard, his reading glasses sticking into his nose. Sitting up and rubbing his eyes, Dipper readjusted his glasses and winced as pain stabbed down his back, which was evidently stiff and aching from spending an entire night in a sitting position. This, however, wasn't an uncommon situation for the aspiring writer, and he knew exactly what he needed to jolt himself back to wakefulness. Coffee. Something- which a look around the kitchen told him- that the Mystery Shack was all out of.

Damn. A trip to Starbucks it was.

Taking out some more money from his bag, Dipper pulled a jacket around his shoulders, not even bothering to change clothes from the day before heading out into the main area of the town. He shoved his hands into his pockets to keep them from becoming cold as he walked; 7:30am was never the best time for warmth.

Dipper used his shoulders to push his way into the shop, already feeling slightly rejuvenated from the aroma of the coffee alone. He glanced over towards the counter and cursed internally at the sight of who was standing there. Of course it had to be the same attractive blonde-haired Barista that was there the day before. Running a hand through his hair awkwardly just causing it to stick up even more, he warned himself to not to stare at the Blonde, not wanting to risk the same embarrassment as he did the day before. Walking over to the counter, Dipper observed as the Starbucks worker looked up and fixed him with a golden-brown gaze, evidently waiting for him to place his order.

"Uhm, can I have an espresso please." Dipper could practically feel the blonde's gaze boring into him as he spoke, causing him to stumble awkwardly over his words. The barista nodded, collecting the money that Dipper pushed across the counter towards him, dropping the change into the brunet's palm, then he moved off to the side to make Dipper's drink. The entire exchange was completely wordless on the barista's behalf, despite the fact that he looked like the sort of person to enjoy conversation, and the silence just made things even more awkward for Dipper than they already were. It let more of his attention span to focus on the man's appearance; something that he really didn't want to do too much of, out of fear of risking a repeat of his trip to the Coffee shop the day before.

The blonde passed the coffee cup along to Dipper, _winking_ as he did so. He was caught completely off guard and felt heat flush to his face as a response to the sudden yet simple action. He grabbed his cup quickly, then walked out of the shop, bringing it to his lips to take a drink, before noticing something written on the side of it. The same scrawling script that was on his cup the day before was there again, this time writing out a different message.

 _'I asked you a question last time, Pine Tree! Don't you know it's rude to not reply to people?'_

Dipper had now managed to sum up three things from the brief meeting he just had with the blonde. One, the blonde barista was attractive. Two, he was also one of the most infuriating people Dipper had ever met. And three, it was far too early for this.

The brunet warmed his hands on his coffee cup as he walked back along to the Mystery Shack, his brain processes sluggish, the encounter with the 'Professional Asshole' barista only contributing to his steadily developing headache. As soon as he made it back into the Shack, Dipper flopped down into the chair that he'd fallen asleep in and drank his coffee quickly, the kick it gave to his system jolting him into a state of wakefulness that resulted in him feeling more like a human and less like a zombie. Running a hand through his hair to attempt to tame it into submission- to no avail-, the aspiring writer minimised the tab that held his half-completed novel in, and re-opened his internet tab. He scrolled through his emails first, realising that a few people had commented on and liked his video already. A sense of relief that people were enjoying and taking interest in the type of content he was producing filled him, and he made a resolution to go and film another video later on in the day, when he would be feeling more awake. Coffee may work well, but it wouldn't be enough to pull him into a presentable state before at least 1pm. Dipper decided to respond to the comments later, planning to go back to his writing, however, upon seeing that mIndscape had responded to his comment, he scrapped that plan.

Dipper had never expected that the masked youtuber would even look at his videos, never mind comment on one, and now that he had even gone as far as to respond to his reply, he was pretty shocked.

 _'IT'S ALL GOOD. YOU SEEM PRETTY INTERESTING, SO YOU CAN TALK TO ME IF YOU WANT. AND THE STUFF ABOUT THE CLIFFS FALLING WAS INTERESTING TOO. THANKS FOR EXPLAINING AND GIVING ME MORE WAYS THROUGH WHICH I COULD CAUSE MASS DESTRUCTION.'_

Dipper read over the comment, and, although the end of it was a little unusual, he found himself only focusing on the start. He felt slightly exhilarated as he read over it a few times in a row, just to clarify that he was perceiving it correctly. For one thing, mIndscape had called him interesting, and another thing was that he had said that he wouldn't mind Dipper talking to him, and that in itself was enough to distract him from the fact that the youtuber seemed to be collecting methods to bring about Doomsday. Dipper sat still in his chair for a while, trying desperately to think of a response that wouldn't make him seem awkward, or overly pushy, or suspiciously polite, wanting to create a good impression of himself. After a lot of writing and deleting and rewriting and deleting again, the brunet managed to conjugate what, in his mind, was a decent response.

 _'Well, I'm glad that I could help. It might be a little bit of a problem, getting them to fall, though. They do happen to be pretty sturdy, despite how fragile they look. Also, I'm glad that you find me interesting, although, I'm not sure I would say that I'm an exciting person to talk to. If you do want to talk with me though, then that'd be pretty great, I'd be really happy to talk with you.'_

Pressing to send the message, Dipper pulled himself away from the internet, and went back to his writing, finishing off the chapter from where he had left it the night before. By then, it was a good time to eat lunch, which for Dipper, consisted of some doritos and a ready-made sandwich that he'd bought in the grocery store the day before. Finishing off his makeshift lunch, Dipper grabbed his bag of recording equipment and added a tripod from the gift shop, before settling down once again to write a script for his next video. The brunet settled on the glowing moss that resided around a cave entrance at the edge of the woods as the topic for his next video, and turned straight to the page holding the details upon it in the Journal, jotting down notes, then eventually a full, word for word script. Then began the process of memorizing the script, which involved a lot of pacing around the Shack, reciting it under his breath, until he had remembered it completely.

Deciding that he knew it well enough to shoot the video, Dipper headed out into the woods once again, the atmosphere almost magical as birds fluttered through the treetops, and pine needles shifted lightly under his feet as he walked. The paths through the woods were practically ingrained into Dipper's mind, and he found the cave with no problem, the bioluminescent moss becoming visible as he walked closer towards it. Unloading his equipment from his bag, he began the recording process, setting up the tripod, only to realise that one of the legs was broken, leaving it unable to stand properly. Dipper cursed under his breath, then walked off in search of a stick to act as a replacement leg for the tripod.

Returning with a branch and jamming it into the ground then balancing the tripod onto it, Dipper stepped back, satisfied with the fix for now. The video might be a little shaky due to how unstable the tripod now was, but it was definitely better than nothing. The filming process was similar to the last time- a lot of messed up introductions and stumbling over words, however the only completely disastrous thing that happened was when he was unable to detach the camera from the tripod to give a close-up shot of the moss, and the whole thing ended up collapsing, but even that was resolved pretty simply. Dipper soon ended up with another fully filmed video, and returned the equipment to his bag, before heading off back into the woods and towards the main town area. He had come to the conclusion that he needed more coffee, so instinctively headed back along to Starbucks.

Spotting that the Blonde Barista was still standing behind the counter, Dipper quickly pulled out a sheet of paper and a pen out of his bag, scribbling some words down onto it before he approached him.

 _'There, I'm replying to you now. Happy? Also, I'll have the same thing as I ordered earlier.'_

The note in his hand served as a response to the Blonde's earlier comment written on his coffee cup, and as he approached the till, the barista looked up, and shot a smirk in Dipper's direction. The brunet placed the note on top of the counter, and the man it was directed at picket it up, skimming over it with his eyes, winking at Dipper the way he had done earlier, then moving off to make the drink. Once again, there was a note for Dipper written on the side of the cup.

 _'Well it took you long enough. I think you owe me an introduction- I haven't seen you around here before.'_

The next few days were a pretty surreal experience for Dipper. His visits to the Starbucks became more and more frequent as an odd note-passing ritual started up between him and the attractive blonde who worked there, with Dipper sliding notes across the counter and the barista writing his response on the side of his cup in black sharpie. The Blonde rarely revealed any details about himself, and seemed to prefer to ask Dipper questions, seeming interested in his knowledge about the woods, often adding additional requests for explanations of the phenomena that the town held, to which the aspiring writer would gladly oblige.

The week also presented a few new videos on Dipper's youtube channel, some footage of the Five-legged deer and an explanation of the large cave filled with Amber-trapped insects joining his video of the Cliffs and the Glowing Moss. One thing that was consistent about the videos was that mIndscape commented on every single one, Dipper growing more confident about talking to the popular youtuber as he reminded himself that he happened to be a human too, albeit an infuriatingly puzzling one. It soon came to the point when the only comments Dipper really responded to were those from the masked youtuber, something which Mabel picked up on pretty quickly, sending him a long stream of Skype messages, demanding to know how he'd got mIndscape to talk to him.

A final surprise that the week held was that Mabel and Pacifica had sent him a set of hand-painted signs that they'd created for him to hang up to advertise his tours, and, by Friday, he had enough content to start running them for real. Taking small groups of people on trips around the cliffs and woods began to take up most of his day, leaving Dipper with only the night-time to work on his book, talk to Mabel and chat with mIndscape.

After he'd been back in Gravity Falls for a little over a week, Dipper finally managed to sort out a time to have a meal with Wendy and catch up on things. The two of them had headed along to Greasy's Diner at lunch time and sat and talked over a plate of pancakes, Wendy sharing details of what had been happening in the town while he'd been gone, and Dipper explaining what he'd been doing while he was away at University, and how he was halfway through writing his first novel.

"So, uhm, do you know anything about that blonde guy who works at Starbucks? The one with the 'Professional Asshole' badge?" When the two of them were finishing up their meal, Dipper's curiosity got the better of him, and he inquired to Wendy about the blonde barista that he'd been passing notes to for the past week, hoping that she could provide some more information on him. The red-haired female opposite him paused to think for a moment, before she spoke.

"Oh, you mean Bill? He moved here just a few weeks after you left. He's worked in businesses all over the town, but he kept getting fired- Starbucks has probably been his longest-lasting job placement so far." Dipper mulled the blonde's name over in his head a few times. Bill. It fitted surprisingly well, and Dipper was relieved to be able to put a name to the Starbucks worker's face. "He's pretty secretive- nobody knows what he actually does in his free time. He leaves work, sometimes goes to buy some food, and then heads back to his apartment. His curtains are always closed and I don't think anyone besides him has been inside where he lives." Wendy continued speaking. "He doesn't seem to have any proper friends either. He seems to be perfectly able to make friends; he just chooses not to. He's a little weird if you ask me." Dipper nodded in acknowledgement of the things Wendy had explained to him.

"Thankyou for telling me- I was just a little curious about him, that's all." Wendy's expression shifted into a questioning smirk as Dipper responded.

"Oh, don't think I haven't seen the two you passing notes back and forwards. It's painfully obvious that you like him- there's no point in hiding it." A teasing note crept into the redhead's voice, and Dipper glanced off awkwardly off to the side, feeling his face flush red at her playfully mocking words. Wendy chuckled lightly, then, dug into her bag, placing some money onto the table in front of her. "Here, I have to head off now, but I'll pay. It was fun catching up on things- we'll have to meet for lunch again soon. See you, Dipper!" with that, Wendy waved and left the Diner before Dipper could protest about her paying.

As soon as he'd paid for the pancakes the two of them had eaten, Dipper left the Diner too and headed along the street towards Starbucks, pulling out a sheet of paper and scribbling down a response to Bill's last message of 'So, Pine Tree, if you're a writer, then are you working on anything? If you are, then feel free to tell me more about it.'

 _'Well, I'm working on a book at the moment, but it's a secret at the moment, I'm afraid! All I can tell you is that it's based around supernatural things, but other than that, you're going to have to wait. Also, your name is Bill, right? Somebody told me that was it.'_

Bill grinned at Dipper as he entered the shop, and instantly went to start making his drink before he even reached the counter, knowing exactly what he would order. Picking up the note as he slid it across the surface between them, Bill skimmed over his writing, a slight look of disappointment passing over his face as he read the part about him not being able to know the details of Dipper's book. The cup was slid along to Dipper, once again with the note scrawled on the side.

 _'Well, I guess you were going to have to figure out my name at some point, so yes, it is Bill. It's a shame about the book, but once you're done writing it, get me an early copy? Friends do tend to share things after all.'_

After what Wendy said about Bill deciding not to have friends, the fact that he seemed to be the first person that Bill had approached as a friend in Gravity Falls made Dipper feel very special indeed.

* * *

Well, I hope you enjoyed your scheduled installment of trash, Thankyou so much for reading!


	5. 5: Skype

Okay, so I know I'm usually not very happy with my writing, but I'm really disappointed about how this one turned out. I kind of hit a bit of an inspiration block while I was writing it, and I kind of feel like everyone is kind of out of character, but despite that, I hope you enjoy reading it! Also, I'm sorry for the perspective switch half way through the chapter- I needed to throw in a bit of Bill's responses to something, so I had to throw in a quick change, but I indicated it with dashes, so hopefully it doesn't throw you off too much. Thankyou so much to everyone who has read this so far, and I apologize in advance for any grammar or spelling issues.

* * *

 **Chapter Five**

It was a little over two weeks after mIndscape started talking to him through the comments of his videos when the popular Youtuber offered to share his Skype contact details with Dipper. The two of them had developed a sense of comfort when it came to talking to each other- Dipper was a lot less intimidated by mIndscape, and mIndscape seemed a lot more trusting when it came to talking about himself; responding with actual emotions when Dipper asked him how he was feeling, instead of saying that he was _'FEELING VERY REFRIGERATOR'_ or a similar phrase, but with varying other household objects.

However, someone had, naturally, spotted his and mIndscape's conversations, and had reported it to the rest of the Masked Youtuber's fanbase, resulting not only in an influx of views to his videos, but also a lot of people questioning him stuff about the Youtuber that he didn't even know himself. People evidently expected Dipper to suddenly know everything about mIndscape just because he'd had a few conversations with him.

So when mIndscape sent Dipper a message with his Skype details enclosed, Dipper was more than glad. mIndscape accepted his contact request almost immediately, typing out a message to him in what seemed to be no time at all.

 _'I SAW SOME PEOPLE INTERROGATING YOU IN THE COMMENTS SECTION THERE- THEY'LL PROBABLY FORGET ABOUT IT IN A WHILE, BUT I THINK IT'D BE BEST IF WE DIDN'T MESSAGE EACH OTHER PUBLICALLY FOR A WHILE'_ Dipper noted how the Youtuber still kept up his caps-lock messaging habits, even privately.

 _'Yeah, hopefully they'll die down in a little while. I don't know how you even manage having people firing questions like that at you all the time on every video. It's pretty exhausting. Plus at least now we can talk properly without a group of people hanging onto our every word.'_

In all honesty, Dipper felt a little guilty. The first thing that came to his mind when mIndscape offered to talk over Skype was that it would be the perfect chance for him to try and figure out exactly who was sitting behind the triangular mask. Checking the clock at the bottom of his computer, Dipper hastily typed out an apology to mIndscape as he realised that it was approaching 2pm.

 _'One second, I'll be back in a little while- I promised someone I'd meet them in Starbucks in a few minutes and I'm going to be late if I don't head off now.'_

Jumping to his feet as he realised that he was probably going to be late meeting Bill, Dipper swung his bag over his shoulder, pulling out a sheet of paper and scribbling his response to the blonde's earlier message of _'So, Pine Tree, how are you today?'_ onto it as he walked quickly out of the Mystery Shack and along the path that would lead him towards the main town area.

Bill had given Pine Tree his Skype details for two reasons. One was that he felt pity for the awkward Brunet, who was practically being harassed by some of the slightly more obsessed members of the mIndscape fanbase, demanding to know some pretty personal stuff. And secondly, so that he could be in contact with Pine Tree through the whole day- using Skype on his phone was a lot easier than responding to Youtube comments, so he could use it pretty much all day, plus there were the face-to-face meetings that they had each day- a scheduled one at 2pm on every day that Bill was working at Starbucks, and then often a few more times over the course of the day, when Pine Tree had time to take breaks from the Tours he ran.

It was amusing seeing Pine Tree talking to him in Starbucks and him as mIndscape as completely different people. He found it endearing, when the brunet brought up Bill the barista in their conversations, however, of course he couldn't tell him that. The only person who knew mIndscape's actual identity was his brother Will, and he intended to keep things that way.

Bill pocketed his phone as Pine Tree sent the message about heading along to Starbucks, knowing that he'd be there in a few minutes, and began to prepare the brunet's drink of choice, so that it'd be the right temperature for him to drink as soon as he got to the shop. The door to the coffee shop swung open a few minutes later, and Bill looked up to see Pine Tree walking in, his hair ruffled even more than usual, glasses skewiff on his face, breathing heavily, indicating that he had probably ran at least some of the the way to the shop. Bill grinned widely as the brunet approached, producing a slightly crumpled note from his pocket as he walked, and opened up the note as it was slid across the counter towards him, his eyes skimming over the neat handwriting upon it.

 _'I'm doing very well today- the tours are getting a lot of positive attention, and my writing is coming together nicely, so I'm feeling pretty optimistic about stuff. How about you?'_

Bill read over the response as Pine Tree passed the payment for his drink across the counter too, and found himself smiling involuntarily at the news that the brunet was doing well. He was well aware of how insecure and pessimistic the man- who was now standing patiently at the side of the shop waiting for his drink- could be, but he wasn't exactly expecting to feel as relieved as he found himself being to know that Pine Tree was okay. Bill chuckled quietly to himself as he made the observation that he seemed to have grown attached to the aspiring writer.

 _'Good, Good. I'm the same as always. Nothing much changes in this job you know.'_ He penned down his response onto the cup, pausing, then added a little more. _'Although things have become a little less dull now that you come here so often. I'm guessing you just can't get enough of me~'_ With that, Bill tucked his sharpie back into his pocket, and slid the drink over to Pine Tree, a smirk plastered across his face.

Over the next few days, talking to mIndscape over Skype became a pretty major distraction for Dipper. Every night after he had wrapped up the last tour, and had resolved to settle down and write out the script for his next video, or another chapter of his book, he would get a few minutes of writing done, then a notification would pop through, and he would find himself typing out responses to mIndscape's admittedly bizarre messages until almost midnight, by which time he would be too tired to focus on whatever he was doing prior to the conversation.

The night that marked his four week anniversary of being back in Gravity Falls was no different. Dipper managed to type out about 5 words, before his computer bleeped at him, the noise echoing around the quiet, still walls of Stan's office. Switching over onto Skype, Dipper read the message that had just been sent through.

 _'HEY DIPPER, DO YOU WANT TO DO A PROPER SKYPE CALL? I FEEL LIKE TALKING TO SOMEONE RATHER THAN JUST TYPING STUFF.'_

There was a short pause, before another message came through.

 _'I WON'T BE SHOWING MY FACE, THOUGH, AND I WON'T BE USING MY ACTUAL VOICE, JUST A VOICE CHANGER THING THAT I BOUGHT, SO DON'T GET YOUR HOPES UP'_

Dipper had to admit that he was slightly disappointed that he wouldn't at least get to hear mIndscape's voice, but he wasn't really surprised. Despite the fact that the youtuber seemed to feel relatively comfortable around the brunet, Dipper reminded himself that mIndscape had only been talking to him properly for about 3 weeks, so the anonymous youtuber was undoubtedly going to still be wary around him.

 _'That's perfectly fine- having a proper skype call sounds like a good idea, I'm also lacking a bit when it comes to conversations with people- all I've been talking about are cliffs or weird deer lately.'_

He typed out his response, then waited, jumping slightly as the incoming call tone sounded. Clicking to accept it, Dipper ran his hands through his hair, and smiled as the webcam turned on, revealing his own face in the bottom of the screen, and a larger image of an empty chair and the familiar yellow walls that were present in the background of all of mIndscape's. mIndscape himself, however, was nowhere to be seen.

"You there, mIndscape?" Dipper called out, his voice taking on a puzzled intonation. As a response, a hand stuck up from around the edge of the desk that the camera sat on, the wrist decorated with a large amount of golden bracelets that clinked together as the arm waved.

"I'm down here!" A voice rang out of Dipper's laptop speaker, distorted by what sounded like a cheap joke-shop voice changer. "I can't be bothered to wear my mask, so I'm hiding under the desk. I have the computer screen down here with me, so I can see you, but I left the webcam up on the desk so you can't see me." mIndscape stuck up another hand, which was also lined with a clump of gold bracelets, and waved them cheerily, before retracting them back underneath the desk. "Greetings, human with whom I have decided to share my presence!" Even the youtuber's voice was as if it was taking on the form of verbal caps lock, clear, yet unnecessarily loud. Dipper raised his hand and gave a small wave, reaching around to scratch the back of his neck, feeling slightly unnerved by the fact that he was unable to see mIndscape's reactions to what he was saying, yet the youtuber could see everything that he was doing.

"Aww you're so adorable and awkward! You look so uncomfortable- I'm not going to slice your face open; or at least not yet anyway." Dipper frowned at the distorted comment that came from under the desk.

"I'm not adorable. I'm just not used to talking to people I've never met in real life over the internet." A loud laugh came through the speaker's of the brunet's computer as soon as he finished speaking.

"Ha, there's no point in denying it! You're adorable and awkward and everyone probably knows it!" Dipper felt colour flush involuntarily to his face, and he sighed loudly, pulling his hat down over his face to try and avoid mIndscape's mocking comments. Suddenly, another loud noise started playing through his computer, and Dipper placed his hat back onto his head, noticing that another call was coming in from Mabel.

"Hey, mIndscape, my sister is calling me- would it be okay if I added her into this conversation?" Dipper was reluctant to introduce Mabel into a Skype call when one of her favourite youtubers happened to be one of the participants, knowing that it wouldn't exactly do much to keep her calm. However at the same time, he didn't want to hang up on mIndscape, or ignore Mabel, so his only option seemed to be to offer to add her into the call.

"Yeah, go ahead. She can't be any worse than you, and it's not like she can see me, so I can't see it doing any harm. Plus I'm sure she has plenty of embarrassing stories about you!" Dipper was beginning to regret the preposition already.

"Okay, one second- I'll add her in." Dipper sent a quick message to Mabel, warning her that mIndscape would also be in the chat, then clicked the option to add her into the call. There was a pause, a moment of silence between the two original members of the conversation as they waited for Mabel to pick up the call, then were greeted by a loud shout from the excited brunette who appeared on the screen, her hair dip-dyed pink now, the yellow streaks from last time Dipper had talked with her long gone from her hair. A loud incoherent jumble of words and screeching exploded through Dipper's laptop as Mabel remembered that mIndscape was also in the conversation and could see her.

"OHMYGODMINDSCAPEHELLO!" Dipper flinched as there was an exclamation of surprise from mIndscape's end of the call, followed by a loud thud, and the view of the webcam toppling off the desk and falling onto the floor, revealing a shot of mIndscape's foot and leg, before a hand, the nails painted with black glittery nail varnish, reached over and plucked up the camera up, positioning it back on the table. mIndscape's voice floated up from underneath the desk again after the camera was back in position.

"Wow, I wasn't expecting you to be that loud. I don't know what I've damaged more; my head or the bottom of the desk." Mabel looked sheepishly into her own camera.

"Sorry- I just got a little excited!" mIndscape let out a quiet chuckle into the voice changer.

"I can tell. it's all good though- I'm the one who thought sitting under the desk would be a good idea. One second actually." There was a sound of movement from mIndscape's end of the call, and after a few seconds, the youtuber jumped into full view, the triangle mask secured over his face once more, what seemed to be the full monitor screen of his computer in his arms as he repositioned it in its usual place on top of the desk. The youtuber was wearing an obnoxiously yellow shirt, rolled up to his elbows and accompanied by a black bow tie, the gold bracelets on his arms shifting and clicking together as he made a jazz-hands motion after depositing the screen onto the desk. He raised the voice changer, a cheap-looking, megaphone shaped object to his face before he continued speaking.

"Okay, sitting under desks is definitely not a good idea. I might not want to get my nose squashed by the mask, but at least I don't risk brain damage now! So where were we before I almost broke my own skull?" The youtuber put the voice changer down and clapped his hands together, his bracelets rattling together violently.

"mIndscape, this is my sister, Mabel." Dipper introduced Mabel to the masked youtuber. Mabel, in turn, waved vigorously towards mIndscape, her pink-tipped hair bouncing around her shoulders, which were clad in a fluffy maroon sweater. "What was it that you wanted to call me about anyway Mabes?"

"Oh, nothing really, DipDop! I just felt like calling you!" The bubbly female responded, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. "When was I required to have a reason to call you anyway, DipDop?" mIndscape nodded in response to Mabel's comment.

"Yeah, DipDop- since when did siblings have to have an excuse to call each other? I call my brother up to annoy him all the time." Dipper wasn't sure whether he should be interested in the mention that mIndscape had a brother, or annoyed that the Youtuber had instantly adopted one of his sister's nicknames for him.

"Exactly- mIndscape knows what he's talking about." A wicked smirk spread onto Mabel's face. "Plus you're a bit of a hypocrite, DipDop, because I seem to remember that you were the one who insisted on calling me at least 4 times a day when you first went to University." Dipper heard mIndscape let out a snort of laughter as the brunette recounted her memories of what was probably one of Dipper's less dignified moments. In response, he sunk back further into his chair, frowning at the webcam. "Oh, Oh, and I'm assuming DipDop didn't tell you about that time he got his head stuck in a lampshade when he was trying to chase a moth out of his room?" Dipper sunk even further into his chair, knowing how much ammunition Mabel was giving Youtuber, and how he would probably hear nothing but lamp jokes for at least a week.

He was beginning to regret allowing Mabel anywhere near mIndscape.

* * *

Yeah, this chapter was a little dull, but I hope that you enjoyed reading the trash anyway!


	6. 6: Research

Well, I'm back again with another dose of trash for you all.  
I don't really have much to say about this chapter really, except to apologize for any mistakes- I've had a pretty bad cold over the last few days, so my writing skills haven't exactly been the best. But I had motivation, so this chapter happened. If there are any grammar or spelling mistakes, or if anyone is out of character, I apologize in advance!  
Also, I have to thank everyone who has read this so far! I think I say this in every chapter, but I really never expected so many of you to like this fanfiction- it really makes my day, reading all of your comments and seeing that people enjoy what I'm writing!

* * *

 **Chapter 6**

The fact that mIndscape had mentioned that he had a brother remained with Dipper for the rest of that night. It was the only thing that the Youtuber had said thus far that would be any use to discovering his identity, and he couldn't just let that rest at the back of his mind. So naturally, the following day, Dipper probed a little deeper into the matter of mIndscape's brother, hoping to find enough information to discover the identity of his brother, then, eventually, the identity of mIndscape. Call him obsessed, but Dipper had found a lead, and he wasn't just going to give up on it.

 _'So, mIndscape, you mentioned last night that you had a brother?'_

Dipper messaged the youtuber the following morning, trying to disguise his search into his identity as plain curiosity.

 _'YES, I DID MENTION THAT. HE'S PRETTY MUCH THE EXACT OPPOSITE OF ME, BUT WE GET ALONG SURPRISINGLY WELL.'_

The youtuber responded quickly, and Dipper sat and thought about how he should word his next reply, without seeming too invasive.

 _'What do you mean by opposite, exactly?'_

Once again, the response was swift.

 _'MY FAMILY ACTUALLY APPROVES OF HIM, FOR ONE THING. HE'S STUDYING PSYCHOLOGY IN CALIFORNIA AT THE MOMENT, AND I'M HERE MAKING YOUTUBE VIDEOS, WHICH THEY DON'T ACTUALLY THINK OF AS A PROPER WAY TO SPEND MY TIME.'_

Dipper now knew that the Youtuber's brother was in California, and was studying Psychology, which narrowed things down, but not by much. He needed more information, but he had to tread lightly. If he interrogated mIndscape too much, then the youtuber would most likely become suspicious, perhaps even to the point of losing his trust in Dipper entirely. Despite wanting desperately to discover mIndscape's identity, he wouldn't want to compromise the friendship he had created with the youtuber.

 _'Ah, I'm sorry to hear that your parents think that. It's interesting that your brother is studying in California- when I was choosing a course, that was one of my possible options. From what you've heard, is there anything I've been missing out on?'_

Dipper hadn't actually considered California as an option of a place to study when he was picking out his writing course, but a small lie wouldn't exactly do too much damage.

 _'FROM WHAT HE'S TOLD ME, EVERYTHING IS PRETTY MUCH THE SAME AS ANY OTHER UNIVERSITY. APPARENTLY THE ONLY REMARKABLE THING IS THAT HIS ROOMMATE, GIDEON GLEEFUL OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT, IS SOME SORT OF PSYCHIC AND SOMETIMES DRAGS HIM OUT TO HELP ON HIS SHOWS. IT'S A BIT WEIRD AND DISTRACTING APPARENTLY. I GUESS THINGS ARE PRETTY BORING FOR HIM WHEN HE DOESN'T HAVE ME BLOWING STUFF UP IN THE MICROWAVE OR SETTING FIRE TO THE FURNITURE EVERY FEW DAYS.'_

He hadn't been expecting that much information from the usually secretive youtuber, but Dipper wasn't going to complain. He had enough information to potentially get somewhere with his investigation into mIndscape's identity, and, as soon as he had finished his tours for the day, the brunet knew exactly what he would spend his evening doing.

 _'Hmm, it sounds pretty interesting if you ask me, although I'm not sure I'd like to have a psychic as my roommate. I'm going to have to head off and start on the first tour of the day- I'll talk to you later!'_

Dipper stood up, reciting over a list of the places he was meant to be visiting on the tours that day, as a message popped up from mIndscape.

 _'GOOD LUCK ON THE NERD STUFF- I BET IT'S HARD SPENDING MOST OF THE DAY WITHOUT BEING ABLE TO TALK TO ME'_

Laughing slightly to himself at the youtuber's comment, Dipper closed over his laptop lid, and made his way into the Mystery Shack Gift shop, flipping the sign on the door to proclaim the fact that it was open, then positioning himself behind the counter, waiting for people to arrive and buy tickets for the first tour, which would be running in an hours time. Things had changed a fair amount in the Mystery Shack since Grunkle Stan put Dipper in charge- for one thing, the prices of the merchandise had dropped significantly, and a lot of the more pointless things had been replaced by souvenirs from around Gravity Falls; rocks from the cliffs, crystals from the amber caves, even some small Pine Tree saplings in plastic pots that people could take home and plant. The first tourists arrived a few minutes later, and by the time 11am rolled around, there was a group of seven people waiting to be taken on the tour, a few of them telling Dipper that they had seen his videos, and that was how they had found the position of the Mystery Shack.

The tours Dipper ran had a set list of destinations, however the routes he took and the order he visited them in usually depended on the members of the groups. This group consisted of mainly adults, so Dipper resolved to take them around the more difficult route, which he wouldn't dream of taking children up, because having them fall down the steep path up to the cliffs really wouldn't be an ideal outcome. He lead the group around the Cliffs, Moss Caves, Amber Caves, the areas of the forest that the Five-Legged deer liked to visit, the clearing that was filled with fragments of crystal, protruding from the mossy ground, the other clearing that contained a plethora of rare fungi and grasses, and to finally the waterfall that spilled from the side of the floating cliffs and gave Gravity Falls its name. The tours usually lasted about an hour, and Dipper would wait another hour in between tours, taking the break time to go down to Starbucks and meet Bill, or to relax and eat some food, before taking the next group out. He ran about four tours each day and finishing up at 5, just as it started to get dark.

The tours of that day ran smoothly as usual, but Dipper found himself glad when he was able to shut up the Gift Shop for the night and head back into Grunkle Stan's old office, where his laptop was kept. Instead of opening up Youtube or Skype or the document that contained his writing, Dipper headed straight onto the internet, hoping that there would be something there about mIndscape's brother's Psychic roommate, Gideon Gleeful.

A quick internet search for 'Gideon Gleeful psychic' brought up the results Dipper desired- a link to a page of events being held in a small theater near a University in California, a proclaiming the weekly 'Tent of Telepathy' show, ran by acclaimed psychic Gideon Gleeful. Scrolling further through the events, the brunet struck gold, taking note of an extra name, alongside the psychic's own name. _'Featuring Guest, William Cipher.'_ If what mIndscape had told him was correct, then William may be the name of the anonymous youtuber's brother.

Another search for 'William Cipher' lead Dipper to the exact thing he had been looking for. A facebook page, belonging to Psychology major William Cipher, roommate of the Psychic Gideon Gleeful, and, as Dipper now knew, the brother of mIndscape.

A look through William's photo gallery presented Dipper with a lot of pictures of old books, science puns, and pictures of the owner of the facebook account himself. The man they presented had fluffy blonde hair, a slight bit lighter than mIndscape's, and seemed to dress in a similar fashion to his brother, all his pictures seeming to show him wearing light blue sweaters and shirts. His face made him look a lot younger than he probably was, his smile looked innocent and childish, and his cheeks dusted with freckles. A search of the account finally lead Dipper to what he wanted- an email address for the Psychology Student.

He sat for a little while longer after opening up his own email and typing in mIndscape's Brother's email address, wanting to phrase his message carefully. He wanted to make sure that he didn't sound too much like he was stalking mIndscape, although some people would describe what he was doing as just that. Eventually, he formulated what seemed to be a decent message, clarifying that he was a friend of mIndscape's, and that he was simply interested in talking to him, rather than seeking out information about the Youtuber. Dipper figured that if he could simply strike up a conversation with William, then he would eventually be able to find some things out about mIndscape, and clicked send, sitting back and closing his laptop over, deciding to head to bed early that night.

It was only the day after the Skype call with the brunet that Bill began to realise how much he had began to trust Dipper Pines. Not only had he managed to become one of his sole contacts outside of work and outside of the internet, the majority of his time in Starbucks being spent waiting for when Dipper would next come into the shop, but also, after only a few weeks of talking to him, he had developed enough trust to engage in a proper skype call, something that Bill hadn't even done with people he had been talking to online for a few years. There was just something about Dipper that seemed to call out that he should be trusted, and trustworthiness wasn't something that Bill saw in people easily. His parents had done a good job of affirming that, by acting as if they didn't know Bill had been recording Youtube videos, then, the moment he posted a video talking about his boyfriend at the time, getting onto his computer and deleting his channel, taking away his phone and cutting him off from society for at least a month. mIndscape had been Bill's chance to start again, the reason that he never showed his face in his videos partially out of fear that his parents would find a way to do a similar thing.

Bill's trust in Dipper was what could only be called uncharacteristic, but having someone other than Will to talk to was a thing he never thought he would find himself needing. Yet there he was, worried over the fact that Dipper hadn't responded to his messages that night. The brunet always responded quickly, so the fact that he hadn't sent anything back for over an hour had begun to concern Bill, and he found himself wondering whether Dipper was hurt, or was angry at him for some reason. Bill shook his head slightly at the thought. It seemed to him that he didn't just trust Dipper, but cared about him too.

So when a message came through onto his Skype, Bill found himself hurrying to answer it, deflating slightly when he saw that it was from Will, not Dipper. Not that he wasn't glad to hear from his brother- Will was the only family that actually seemed to hold any respect for him, however, at that point of time, the Youtuber would rather have clarification that Dipper was okay than engage in conversation with his younger, and admittedly smarter, brother.

 _'Hey, Bill, how are you?'_

The youtuber didn't want to worry Will, however, and knew that his brother would instantly pick up on the fact that he was feeling off if he didn't respond- Will had an unnaturally good ability to read people's actions and emotions, and ever since he had started his Psychology course, that ability had only been enhanced.

 _'I'M PRETTY GOOD, HOW ABOUT YOU?'_

Bill didn't even pick up on the fact that he was still typing in caps lock until Will picked up on it.

 _'Well, I was good, but now I'm worried. You never usually keep up the mIndscape act while you're talking to me, so it's clear that there's something on your mind.'_

Will didn't even need to prompt Bill to tell him what was wrong to get him to do so.

 _'I'm just concerned about one of my friends, I guess. They usually respond to me really fast and it's been over an hour since I sent a message to them and they still haven't sent anything back. I think they might be hurt or avoiding me. They do a lot of travelling around and climbing cliffs and caving and all that sort of stuff, so it wouldn't be impossible for them to be trapped and injured somewhere.'_

There was a pause from Will, before another message came through.

 _'It's the 'Journal number 4' Guy that you're talking about here right? I'm sorry to break it to you Bill, but I'm not sure that you should be trusting him as much as you do. I got an email from him about 20 minutes ago, talking about he was a friend of yours, and how he just wanted to have a talk with me. It was obvious that he was waiting for me to slip information on you. Are you sure he isn't just keeping up his 'friendship' with you for his own personal gain?'_

As Bill read over Will's message, he wasn't sure over whether to be angry at Dipper for going behind his back like that, or angry at Will, for suggesting that he had poor taste in confidants. The Youtuber's hands hovered over his keyboard for a long while, his mind racing with possibilities of what he could respond with, however every one of them tangled into a mess of words, and he pushed away from his computer, leaving his recording room, slamming the door behind him.

Bill sat down on the floor, his back pressed against the pale coloured wall of his apartment, trying to sort his thoughts into order. Despite feeling slightly betrayed at how Dipper had been attempting to discover his identity for a while, he didn't feel as angry as he would expect himself to do. Instead, he found himself almost impressed, The fact that Dipper had been able to find Will from the simple information that he had given him causing Bill to admire the brunet's ability to uncover things. He also found himself unable to become angry at Will- his brother seemed to be acting out of concern, and evidently wasn't aware of how much Bill valued his friendship with Dipper, only thinking to look out for his older brother.

A loud sigh exhaling from his mouth, Bill rose back to his feet and headed back into the recording room, sitting back down at his computer and typing out a response to Will.

 _'It's fine, Will. Dipper is naturally curious- I should have expected him to try and find stuff out about me. Just tell him that you're not too happy with talking to people that you haven't met in real life before, and leave it at that.'_

He thought a little bit longer, then added something else.

 _'And don't tell Dipper that I know about him trying to find out who I am. I have a feeling that would scare him away for good, and I wouldn't exactly want that. Believe it or not, but I think I might actually have gained his friendship.'_

* * *

Cue Dipper's detective mode

Thankyou so much for reading, and again, I apologize if I made any mistakes!  
And also, if any of you want to ask any questions about the fanfiction, or just want to talk to me about stuff (seriously, you can just come and start talking to me about random stuff and I will probably just go along with it) My tumblr url is 'ghost-noises', so feel free to send me messages and stuff on there!


	7. 7: Deny It

Well, the cold I had got worse and still hasn't gone away, but I wanted to get this chapter up, so I'm sorry about any sloppy writing! Also, I really want to thank everyone who sent messages to me on tumblr after the last chapter, I really love hearing from you, even if it's just silly stuff that you want to share with me! Also, everyone needs to go and check out lehighfivegirl on tumblr- they made so much amazing fanart for this trash fanfiction! And, also, just as a note for this chapter- I know that Bill is generally emotionless in canon, because he's a demon with no regard for human life, however, in this chapter, he does get pretty emotional, and that's because he's human in this, and it wouldn't be natural for a human to be totally emotionless 100 percent of the time, hence the fact that he does panic a bit in this chapter. I am sorry if he seems out of character though!

* * *

 **Chapter Seven**

To say Dipper was inexperienced when it came to romance would be an understatement. The brunet had only ever had one 'successful' romantic experience, and that only happened because Mabel set him up with the girl in question, and even then, it only lasted a few months. So when he found himself pretty much head over heels for the Bill, the blonde barista that worked in the Gravity Falls Starbucks, he had no idea what to do.

The only thing he could think of doing at that point was exactly what he had been doing prior- carry on the silent friendship he had developed with Bill, and hope that something happens. The fact that the blonde seemed to be constantly flirting with him through his notes didn't seem to help things either, and just made Dipper all the more confused. Bill did seem to flirt with the majority of the people who came into the shop, as Dipper noticed, however the only person it happened periodically to was Dipper himself, which lead to him questioning whether the comments were meaningful, or just the barista mocking him.

At first, Dipper was in a state of denial. He refused to believe that he was attracted to Bill, and wouldn't let himself think of him as anything other than an acquaintance, or possibly even a friend. However, it eventually got to the point where he found himself thinking far too much about the barista, the blonde constantly on his mind, almost frustratingly so on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays, when Bill had his days off from work. The fact that Bill seemed to have taken over his thoughts without him realising annoyed Dipper to no end, as it was pretty damn distracting.

Similar thoughts that had been passing through Dipper's head for the whole of the prior few weeks filled his mind as usual on the morning of his 6 week anniversary of owning the Mystery Shack, thoughts of which he only looked up from as a bike swerved around him, the person riding it whisking past in a blur of colour and angry noises as he was startled back into full consciousness by the realization that he had stopped moving, and was standing in the middle of the road outside of Starbucks. Letting out a surprised exclamation, he leapt backwards, tripped over the edge of the pavement and fell backwards onto the ground, scrambling awkwardly to his feet as he looked up and saw Bill through the window of the Gravity Falls Starbucks, practically crying with laughter.

Dipper coughed awkwardly, and pushed his way through the coffee shop door, walking over to the counter, where Bill was still laughing, a high-pitched, clear sound. As he slid his note across the counter, the barista reached up and wiped his eyes, letting out a few more bursts of laughter, before opening up the note and jotting down his own message on the cup, sliding it over to Dipper, who picked it up, paid for the drink and left while he read the response.

 _'Oh my god Pine Tree that was hilarious- you're so clumsy fucking hell. Why did you even stop in the middle of the road like that? Did the sight of me in the window stun you into stillness?'_

Dipper could practically see Bill's face smirking at him as he read the last line. Taking a sip of his coffee, Dipper begrudgingly made note of how the barista was pretty accurate when it came to both statements. The brunet walked back to the Mystery Shack, making sure that he made it safely across all roads, and prepared himself for his next tour, trying to force Bill out of his mind before he fell off the cliffs or encountered some sort of similar accident.

Later that day, after the tours were done, Dipper logged straight onto skype to talk to Mabel, hoping that she could give him some advice about his situation with Bill.

 _'Hey Mabel, can I have some help with something?'_ Mabel's response came through swiftly.

 _'What is it BroBro?'_ Dipper typed out his response as vaguely as possible- going into detail would probably just result in him embarrassing himself.

 _'This is going to sound really stupid, but there's this person that works in the Starbucks I go to, and I really like them, and I'm pretty sure that they've been flirting with me over the past few weeks, but I have no idea and I'm too awkward to ask them, and I think you can probably guess the rest.'_ The brunet hoped that he wouldn't have to explain himself any further than that.

 _'ohohohohohohohoh'_ It was about that point that Dipper began to regret even mentioning his predicament to his sister. _'DipDop has a crush on a Starbucks barista! I like where this is going already.'_ The regret became stronger, but there was no backing out of it now. When it came to situations alike to the one Dipper was in, Mabel was an unstoppable force. _'I don't see why you don't just go and talk to him, Dipper- if he's flirting with you, then he probably likes you back, you know.'_

 _'Wait, when did I tell you it was a guy I was talking about?'_ Dipper typed out his response quickly, his fingers hitting the keys of his laptop a little harder than necessary.

 _'Ha, so it is a guy! I knew it! Pacifica is going to have to give me $10 when she gets back from class now.'_ By now, Dipper was resisting the urge to smash his forehead into the keyboard of his laptop, although that urge wasn't exactly something uncommon when it came to conversations with his sister.

 _'Wait, Wait, you were betting on whether I was straight or not?'_

 _'Yeah, pretty much- and I just won. I'm going to be able to buy so many sweets with the money I'm getting from this.'_ By this point, he wasn't even surprised. _'Anyway, BroBro, I don't see why you don't just go up to him and tell him you like him. Or at least flirt back or something like that. He probably isn't a mind-reader, you know.'_

 _'Wait, you still haven't explained how you even knew the gender of the person I was talking about. True, Bill might not be a mind-reader, but from what I know, you aren't either.'_

 _'Oooh, so he's called Bill then? Well, after I set you up with that girl a few years ago, you told me you'd never trust my advice when it came to girls ever again. You never said anything about advice when it came to guys though. So, you can stop avoiding the main point now. Why don't you just tell him you like him? That always seems to work for me.'_ Dipper had to resist a small laugh at Mabel's last statement.

 _'Yeah, and what percentage of the time does 'always' count as this time? about 5%, maybe?'_

 _'Oh ha ha. It's not like you've had any more success romantically than me.'_ The indignance in Mabel's voice could pretty much be heard in her response, even though it was typed.

 _'Yeah, that's true. I just don't want to dive right in there like that? I'm kind of worried that I'll scare him off.'_

 _'Pshh DipDop, you'd be fine. Just go for it!'_ By this point, Dipper knew that there was no point in getting any sort of advice from Mabel, and pushed away from his computer slightly, running his fingers through his hair in a slightly agitated way. Sitting up again as he noticed another message coming through onto his skype from mIndscape, Dipper played with the option of talking to mIndscape about Bill in his mind, wondering if it was a good idea or not. He eventually came to the conclusion that even the masked Youtuber would be more helpful than Mabel, and typed out a response to the Youtuber's incoming message.

 _'mIndscape help, I have a pretty major problem'_

 _'WHAT'S WRONG? DID YOU GET SWALLOWED BY A LIVING CAVE AND ARE SENDING THIS FROM THE AFTERLIFE'_ Dipper was getting used to the Youtuber's strange comments by now, although he still wasn't too keen to know exactly what was going on in his evidently chaotic mind.

 _'You know that Starbucks worker I was talking about a little while ago? He's literally perfect and it's becoming a pretty major problem. I almost got hit by a bike today because I accidentally stopped in the middle of the road because I was thinking about him too hard. I probably sound super cliche and ridiculous because of it, but it really shouldn't be allowed for him to be that attractive.'_

There was a long pause between Dipper's message and mIndscape's response, the brunet sat back in his chair and ended up waiting over five minutes before something came through.

 _'DON'T GET HIT BY BIKES KID. THAT PROBABLY ISN'T HEALTHY.'_ To Dipper, it sounded almost as if mIndscape was skirting around the main topic of his message, however he didn't want to pursue it, in case it made the Youtuber feel uncomfortable.

Bill was completely aware of the fact that Pine Tree seemed to like him, and he was fine with that- teasing him with that fact was what made him all the more fun. However, as soon as the brunet put it into words, and seemed pretty serious about it, that was when Bill began to panic. As soon as Pine Tree's message came through to him, he sat and read it over multiple times, unsure of what he was even supposed to respond with. Pine Tree clearly had no clue that the person who he knew as mIndscape was the same person as Bill the Starbucks barista, and that fact backed Bill into a corner.

No matter what the situation, Bill knew that he couldn't allow himself to reciprocate feelings for the brunet. He had done a good enough job of denying it until now, and he couldn't allow that to change. All of his past relationships had ended up in some sort of disaster, and call it selfish, but he didn't want to have to go through the whole process all again, and he didn't want to have to put Dipper through that either- it would undoubtedly end painfully for the both of them. Plus, showing any sort of feeling towards Pine Tree, no matter how much he wanted to, would most likely risk the anonymity of his channel, something which was his only way of acting how he wanted without fear of being judged- mIndscape was Bill's safe space, and he didn't want that taken away. By the time Bill had allowed those thoughts to pass through his mind, he had come to the conclusion that he would try his best to avoid directly responding to the main subject of Pine Tree's message, in the hope that he would drop the topic.

As soon as the Youtuber had responded, he closed down his skype tab and left his video to export, leaving his recording room and heading over to the kitchen, pulling out an almost empty bag of popcorn from a cupboard and lying down across his armchair, eating the popcorn to try and distract himself. All he could think of though were the times his parents had scared past relationships away from him, or times that he'd messed up and ruined things, or times when people had been hurt because of him and the stupid stuff he had the habit of saying, and how he didn't trust himself enough to handle anything like that again. Once he'd finished the popcorn, he tossed the wrapper onto the ground, and flopped back into the chair, a loud sigh escaping him. Standing up, he picked the triangle mask off the ground, where it rested against the kitchen counter, and put it back on over his face, sitting back down into the armchair and lying back, the mask obscuring his vision slightly.

At that point of time, remaining masked made him feel just the slightest bit more secure.

The next morning, Bill woke up to find himself still lying in the armchair, late for work, the mask covering his face. His back was stiff from sleeping in such an awkward position, and the triangle mask was pressed up against his nose, one arm prickling with the sensation of pins and needles as he moved it from its position of being thrown over his head. He grudgingly lifted the mask from his face, not feeling up to going into work. Taking off the yellow sweater and bow tie he was wearing, Bill smoothed out his shirt, not bothering with changing his clothes, the process seeming pointless to him at that point of time, and dropped his phone into his bag, slinging it over his shoulder and heading out of his apartment and down the stairs.

The air outside his door was cold and biting, and swept against him like a wall as soon as he stepped out into the street. Shuddering involuntarily at the cold air that whisked around him, his arms protected only by the thin material of the black shirt he was wearing the night before. Bill walked all the way to Starbucks with his head down. He was suddenly painfully aware of people watching him as he walked past, feeling exposed without his mask to hide behind. People would often tell him that the internet was a dangerous place, where everyone can know everything about you at the press of a key, however, right now, for Bill, it seemed that also applied to the world outside of the internet. Bill wasn't usually one to be scared of people, however memories of all the times he had messed things up and caused people to hate him or distrust him were renewed in his mind, and every glance seemed scathing and ready to make some comment that would cause him to snap and lash out.

The Youtuber was glad for the warmth that entering Starbucks brought him, however that was the only thing that made him grateful to be inside the coffee shop. Walking quickly, knowing that he was probably late, Bill hung up his bag and pulled on his apron, the 'Professional Asshole' badge left in the bottom of his bag as he rolled the joints in his shoulders, the cracking sound not as satisfying as it would usually seem, before heading back out behind the counter and waiting for someone to come into the shop.

"Bill, are you okay? You haven't yelled weird stuff at anyone this morning, and normally I'd be glad of that, but it's pretty out of character for you." Bill looked up sharply from wiping crumbs off the counter as someone spoke to him. He had gone through the morning of work in a subdued manner, his mind still lingering in the panic that he had experienced the night before. Keeping the past out of his mind was something that he prided himself in being able to do, however there was only so long that he could keep it out of the way for.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Just a little tired." Bill dismissed the other Starbucks worker's concerns with a half-hearted wave of his hand, lying in an attempt to get them to leave him alone. Almost as soon as his co-worker moved away from him, the door to the shop opened suddenly, a gust of cold wind sweeping in, the noise causing Bill to look instinctively to the doorway to glance at the person entering. He cursed internally to himself as he caught sight of Pine Tree, standing in the doorway, waving to him slightly before walking over to the counter, producing a slightly crumpled note from his pocket. Bill looked from side to side fleetingly, then walked up to meet Pine Tree, forcing a smile onto his face, moving along to make a drink for the aspiring writer. The note remained in the palm of his hand, unread. Every time Bill tried to look down to read the note, a spark of worry of what it would say struck through him. He wanted more than anything to be able to tell Pine Tree to just ignore him, to leave him alone so that he didn't have to go through the inevitable process of turning the brunet away from him to stop him from getting hurt. Picking up the sharpie, he went to pen down his note to Pine Tree on the cup, but his hand faltered, and he recapped the pen and passed the drink across the counter to where Pine Tree was waiting patiently for it.

Bill caught sight of the confused look on Pine Tree's face as he looked down at the cup, before he turned and looked the other way.

* * *

Well things went downhill there pretty quickly, didn't they. I'm not even sorry for making him sad any more.

Anyway though, I hope you enjoyed reading, and thankyou to everyone's super kind comments- hearing that you like my trash fanfiction really makes my day!


	8. 8: Revelations

Okay, I'm so sorry for not updating in ages- but I'm afraid that updates might be a little slow for a while after this one. I've hit a low point when it comes to motivation, and I've been unable to motivate myself to write, and when I do try to write, it's fairly sloppy, and I don't want to subject you to half-assed chapters, so I'm probably going to take a break from writing, and come back when I get my motivation back! Again, I'm so so sorry, but I hope you enjoy the chapter!

* * *

 **Chapter Eight**

The same thing happened to Dipper later on in the day too.

At first he thought it might have been a mistake, that Bill had been tired, and had simply forgotten to write down his note on the cup, that it was all just a one-off scenario, that he would go back into Starbucks later and Bill would be there with a response, just as usual. However, those thoughts didn't stop him from feeling distracted through the next tour he ran, his mind constantly drifting off subject, the brunet having to shake his head to physically snap it back into order. It didn't stop the feeling of panic rising in his chest as he penned down another note for the barista, expressing his concern for the blonde, and headed out of the Mystery Shack towards the main street, the note grasped tighter in his hand than usual, the paper crushed in his grip.

As he approached the door to Starbucks, and caught sight of Bill through the window, he inhaled a breath that guttered slightly in his throat and pushed his way into the shop, heading over to the counter with small steps. He watched Bill's movements as he walked, a slight flash of what seemed to be panic sparking across the blonde's gaze, but it was silenced swiftly enough for Dipper to believe that he had imagined it. Instead, all that he was greeted with was blank golden brown eyes, and a dull expression that looked out of place on the blonde's face, which he was used to seeing decorated with a smirk or grin of some description.

The brunet hesitantly slid the note across the counter, and Bill looked down at it. Dipper could have sworn that he saw the flash of panic cross the barista's eyes again, but once again, it was gone too soon for him to tell. All that happened was that Bill looked down at the note, and turned away towards the coffee machines again without even touching it. Bill might as well have punched the brunet in the face, because that was what it felt like. He watched as the blonde made the drink in silence, his movements harsh and almost angry. Dipper felt a jolt of betrayal stab through him, as he knew that Bill not responding to his note wasn't an accident, but a deliberate act. He cleared his throat, hoping to catch Bill's attention, and called out to him from across the counter, trying to force the tremor from his voice as much as possible.

"It's fine actually. I don't want a drink any more." With those words, Dipper picked up his note off the counter, and turned and walked out of the shop, his gaze trained on the ground, the spark of anger that fueled him refusing him the ability to turn his head and look back at Bill's reaction.

The anger faded rapidly as he walked in long strides back to the Mystery Shack, giving way to a worry that gnawed at the back of his mind and snapped at his heels, causing his fast walking pace to falter and stop. Instead of blaming the barista, he found all the blame wheeling around and falling back onto himself. He found himself descending into a state of panic, thoughts whirling around his head as he walked slowly now. The brunet curled his arms around his own body protectively as the possibility that he had done something to force Bill away from him entered his mind, the possibility that this whole thing was his fault, that the barista wanted to stay away from him because of something that he'd said, something that he'd done, something that had happened to inspire some sort of hate within the blonde.

Dipper wondered with a start whether Bill had figured out how he felt about him, and that was why he was avoiding him. Dipper shrunk further into his own arms at that thought, and he forced himself to speed up his pace, wanting to get back to the Mystery Shack as fast as possible, his nails digging into the tattooed skin of his arms, fingers pressing up the lock and key patterns that curled up from his hands to his shoulders, then met together and tangled into a small eye shape at the back of his neck.

As soon as he reached the door to the shack, he checked the clock on the wall, taking note that he had twenty minutes before the next tour, and headed up the stairs of the Mystery Shack, walking up to the bedroom that him and Mabel had shared over the summers that they had spent in Gravity Falls together. He closed the door to the room behind him and flopped down onto the floor, wedging himself into the corner of the room that he had spent many an hour in, between a set of draws and the wall, and pressing his head up against the solid surface of the chest of draws. Dipper sat there in silence for at least ten minutes, trying to file his thoughts back into order, eyes closed, trying to swim his way through the confusion that chanted in his mind. He then stood up, exhaled deeply, straightened his hat on his head, and headed back down the stairs to meet the next group.

The next day, Dipper found himself instinctively heading out of the Mystery Shack to go down to Starbucks again, and he walked almost the whole way into the shop, his legs carrying him down the familiar paths, before he found himself standing in front of the door, where he remembered the events of the previous day, the dull look in Bill's eyes, the way he had turned his back on him and treated him as if he was just another customer. He caught sight of Bill in the shop, his eyes looking up briefly to meet his, before he turned and walked quickly in the opposite direction, his breath catching in his throat as he reminded himself that whatever he had done, it had been enough to make Bill uncomfortable around him.

Clenching his fists by his sides, he walked briskly back to the Mystery Shack.

For the next few days, Dipper had only left the shack to run tours and to buy food. He stayed as far away from the Starbucks as he possibly could, going near it only inspiring the spark of panic that he had done something wrong, that he had done something to anger or upset the practically perfect barista that worked there. His writing inspiration had hit rock bottom, and it was the same for his motivation to make videos. He had tried to talk to mIndscape, hoping that he could get some inspiration, however the Youtuber only responded in short, noncommittal phrases, then, after a few days, stopped responding all together, something which left Dipper with nobody but Mabel to talk to. His sister, however, was busy in classes for the majority of the day, which left the brunet with nothing to do but sit in Grunkle Stan's old office silently, the thoughts of all the things he might have done to anger or upset Bill piling up in his mind.

Dipper spent six days in that state before Mabel eventually decided to intervene.

The skype calling tone rang through his laptop, snapping out of the daze that he had fallen into, staring blankly at the slowly blinking cursor that waited on his word document for him to type his next word, his mind being able to conjure up no more than a sentence in the hour he'd been sitting at the desk. Clicking to accept the call, the brunet found himself greeted by Mabel's concerned features. Her hair was dyed fully pastel violet now, and was tied up in a small ponytail behind her head, the pink glasses seeming too large for her face in a way that would have been comedic on anyone other than Mabel now that her hair was out of the way.

"DipDop, you need to go out and do something fun. You've been holed up inside for too long and it isn't healthy." Dipper shrugged slightly.

"Well, it's not like there's much else I can do. I don't really have anything better to do than this." Mabel frowned at his response, the expression seeming out of place on her features.

"Why don't you go and talk to that barista guy? Bill wasn't it?" Dipper sighed loudly, rubbing his eyes with his hands.

"No, Mabel, I fucked everything up with him, okay? I think I've done something wrong, because he started avoiding me, so I stopped going along to the Starbucks that he works at because I just panic every time I get to the door. He's the whole reason I've ended up like this." as he spoke, the brunet gestured frustratedly with his hands, trying to get his point across to Mabel.

"DipDop, you need to go and talk to him. I'm pretty sure that holing yourself in your office thing isn't actually going to help anything, even if you have done something to upset him. What will help though, is going along to Starbucks tomorrow morning, and telling him that you're sorry for whatever you did. If you just sit there, he's going to start thinking that he's done something wrong too, and it'll just go round in some sort of big stupid circle. Apologising for whatever you did isn't going to do anything to make it worse. It can only make things better." Dipper sat still in his chair, Mabel's words seeming to kick some sort of order back into his head, his sister's comforting words providing him with a confidence boost of sorts. He smiled up at the webcam, running a hand through his hair, taking down an internal note of how tangled it had become, and how he really should brush it.

"That actually does make a lot of sense, Mabel. Thankyou so much." He paused slightly. "But since when were you the sensible twin?" Mabel let out a laugh.

"You're still the smart one- I'm just the one who actually knows how to deal with people." The brunette grinned at the camera. "Go and talk to him tomorrow, or I'll have to drive down to Gravity Falls and go and talk to him for you." Dipper smiled too, Mabel's cheeriness seeming almost infectious to him.

"I will, don't worry Mabes. I think I might try and sleep now, so goodnight." He waved towards his sister, and she waved back, before reaching over and pressing the button to end the call. Closing the lid to his laptop, he felt a refreshing sense of optimism spark through him, as he headed up the stairs to go to bed.

The next morning was greeted by a gnawing fear at the back of Dipper's mind, that had worked it's way in while he was sleeping, and seemed lodged there permanently, a feeling of foreboding that had replaced the optimism of the night before. However, he had told Mabel that he would talk to Bill, and he wouldn't go back on that, so he attempted to bury the fear underneath the information for the tours of that day, piles for facts and figures and maps ingrained deeply into his memories. The first tour of the day ran smoothly, the fear pushed against the very back of Dipper's skull and obscured from view. However, as soon as it got to the break, and he had to head along to Starbucks, it unburied itself and came rearing out of his mind once more.

No note was written this time- Dipper would have to deal with face to face conversation with the barista this time. He tried to drag the walk out as long as possible, but eventually he ended up facing the Starbucks door, and walked inside, glancing off to the side, a spark of confusion stabbing through him as he saw that Bill wasn't at the counter as he usually was. Walking over still, he queried one of the other baristas about the blonde's whereabouts.

"Excuse me, do you know where Bill is? He's usually working here today and I was hoping to talk to him." The person who he had questioned shrugged slightly, her tightly curled black hair shifting across her shoulders as she did so.

"I'm not sure where he is now. He hasn't turned up to work for at least four days now, and he hasn't given any explanation. The manager has tried contacting him, but he's been ignoring everything. He's getting pretty impatient with him- I think he's on the verge of firing him, because he isn't exactly the most responsible worker in the first place. Sorry, but I don't know where he is." Dipper nodded to the barista.

"Thankyou for telling me- I just wanted to tell him something, but I guess it'll have to wait." With that, Dipper headed out of the shop and back to the Mystery Shack, a sense of defeat dragging at his limbs as he walked.

Over the next few days, there was no sign of Bill turning up at Starbucks, nobody saw him around town, and he never seemed to leave his apartment, the curtains permanently closed across his windows. Dipper hadn't bothered to tell Mabel of his failure yet, knowing that she would just urge him to try again, but the brunet was completely discouraged, believing that it may even have been his fault that Bill was avoiding going into work, that it was his fault that the barista was on the verge of being fired from another job.

To attempt to distract himself from that knowledge, Dipper headed over onto Youtube and decided to check over mIndscape's channel, the name again sending a stab of regret slicing through him as he remembered the fact that the anonymous Youtuber had seemed to lose interest in him. Dipper was concerned that the youtuber had found out about the message he had sent to his brother William and was avoiding talking to him due to that, but tried to avoid thinking about it too much, and tried to focus on mIndscape's videos.

Dipper was surprised to find that the youtuber had been posting more than usual, what seemed to be at least three videos a day over the past few days, something which the youtuber would only do on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays. At that thought, something clicked at the back of Dipper's mind, and he felt a spark of realization flare up in the pit of his stomach. His eyes widened as he elaborated on the thought, pulling together pieces of information from the corners of his mind, watching everything fall together in front of him like the parts of a puzzle.

Bill's days off were the days when mIndscape had the most time to post videos. As soon as Bill stopped going into work, mIndscape seemed to have more time to make videos. As soon as Bill started avoiding Dipper, so did mIndscape.

As the final piece fell into place, and completed the whole puzzle, the result spreading out in front of him, Dipper finally spoke.

"Fuck."

* * *

I really hope you enjoyed reading the trash (I've slipped into the habit of calling it that now, and there's no stopping me), and I apologize for any grammar mistakes or out-of-characterness! Thankyou so so much to all of you for commenting on and reading this- I never would have expected to have so many people interested in this fanfiction!


	9. 9: An Explanation

Well, It's Christmas, so I decided to try and get this chapter written, and I managed it in time, so here it is, sort of like my present to all of you! So this probably isn't my best writing, however this chapter is extremely important- possibly the most important chapter so far, so I hope you enjoy it! I apologize for any out of characterness, and for any spelling or grammar errors, and for those who celebrate it, I wish you all a Merry Christmas!

* * *

 **Chapter 9**

Dipper couldn't believe that he had looked over the evidence in front of him this whole time. His heart was pounding as if he had been running, and his head spun as if he had been strung up from the ceiling by his feet, yet he still stayed rooted to his seat, the thoughts whirling through his mind faster than the speed of sound, silent, yet screaming louder than anything he had ever heard before. He leaned over and buried his face in his hands, cursing himself over and over inside of his mind.

 _Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid…_ The word became alike to a mantra, repeating over and over.

 _How could you look over something like that?_

 _Why didn't you see it sooner?_

 _Why didn't you look hard enough?_

The thoughts began to separate and slow down, giving way to coherent words, reminding him of how ignorant he had been, the works spilling from his mouth in muttered phrases, his hands tangling into his own hair in frustration. They repeated again and again, until Dipper had lost track of how long he had been sitting there. However, one thought reared its head above the rest, starting quiet then increasing in volume until it overpowered all the other thoughts, the brunet's mind suddenly silencing, clarity descending upon him.

 _You can fix this_

For the first time in what felt like years, Dipper's thoughts were clear. He knew exactly what to do, exactly what to say, exactly how to react, the change so sudden that he stopped to wonder whether he had transformed into a different person. But Dipper was still Dipper, and he knew how to fix things.

Pulling on a coat and running out of the door, he began to walk hastily towards where he knew Bill's apartment was, his hands resting in his pockets, clenched into fists in a slight sense of uncertainty. He knew that he did have a chance to make things right, to apologize, to settle things between him and Bill, however he knew that the blonde could be unpredictable and act unlike people would expect him to act, and say things that people wouldn't expect him to say, so Dipper was still anxious about the confrontation that would undoubtedly happen- and rightfully so.

Approaching the door to the front of the block of apartments that Bill lived in, Dipper had to pause to force down the rapidly rising wave of uncertainty that threatened to overwhelm him, then headed inside. The place was cold, clean and, in the majority, silent, the least likely sort of place that Dipper would expect someone like Bill to live. He found a listing of names and buttons that would allow visitors to call up to the residents, and read down them, until he reached the listing for room 3b, which was registered as belonging to Bill Cipher. Taking note of the name of the room, Dipper crossed over to the stairs, inhaling deeply before heading up them. His footsteps echoed loudly as he made his way up the staircase, fingers gliding along the cold metal handrail, past floor one, floor two, then to floor three, finding himself standing directly in front of room 3b, the residence of Bill Cipher, of mIndscape, of the person that Dipper had to apologize to.

The brunet could hear faint sounds of movement through the door to the apartment, which clarified that Bill was home, and the muffled music that also played indicated that he wasn't filming a video, so Dipper raised his hand, exhaled heavily to try and force aside the feelings of uncertainty that were clustering inside of him, and tapped upon the door. The sound rang out loud and clearly, no way of disguising it as anything other than a knock.

 _No backing out now._

Dipper had to force his feet to stay rooted to the ground as the music from inside room 3b cut off abruptly, and the sound of footsteps drew closer to the door.

"Who's there?" The voice that rang out from the other side of the door was undoubtedly Bill's- Dipper recognised it, despite never really having had a direct, vocal conversation with the blonde, aside from his conversations with mIndscape, which always used the joke-store voice changer. Dipper had to swallow heavily before speaking, his throat having grown dry without him realizing.

"It's me; Dipper." There was a sharp intake of breath from the other side of the door, and the sound of movement once again as it was made clear that Bill had just walked sharply away from the door. Dipper could feel a note of desperation creep into his voice when he next spoke. "Please, Bill, I just want to talk." Still no response, just an uncomfortable silence that settled like a wall between them. He drew in a shuddering breath. "I know that you're mIndscape. I figured it out." More footsteps, as Bill hurried back over to the door.

"Oh shit." There was an almost scared note to the blonde's voice. "How did you find out? Is it that obvious? Is there any possibility that anyone else knows?"

"Look, it's fine. I only figured it out because I knew you well as both mIndscape and Bill, and I don't think there's anyone else that is in that position. It's all fine- only I know." Dipper was surprised at how reassuring he had managed to make his voice sound, and how easily he'd managed to formulate the right words to say. There was a long silence from Bill's side of the door, before there was the sound of something thudding against the wooden surface, then a sliding noise as it was made apparent that the blonde had just slid down the door and sat down upon the ground.

"Please, just make it easier for yourself and leave." Bill's voice was muffled, but still resonated with a sense of defeat.

"I can't leave yet. I need to apologize first. I'm not sure exactly what it is that I've done to make you want to avoid me- and I know I probably made you very uncomfortable through all the stuff that I said about you when I wasn't aware that it was you I was talking to, and if you don't want to associate with me any more, then that's understandable. But I just want to say sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you or upset you or make you feel uncomfortable. If you want me to leave now, then just say it, and I'll go." There was a long silence. No words were spoken from either side of the door and no movements were made- it seemed as if the whole world around them was holding its breath. Then there was a sigh from Bill's side of the door, the sound of rustling clothing as movements were made, then the door clicked and swung open.

Bill stood in the doorway, his hair messy and ruffled at the back, his golden-brown eyes trained on Dipper. The blonde's attire was not what the brunet was used to seeing, a simple pair of jeans and a black t-shirt with a triangle upon it being the only thing he was wearing, his eyes lacking the usual eyeliner and gold tint brushed across his eyelids. He was a lot shorter than Dipper remembered him to be too, standing at least a few inches smaller than the brunet, without the pair of high-heeled boots that Bill often seemed to wear to equalize their heights. He stood in a defeated pose, leaning slightly against the doorframe, his mouth without the usual smirk or grin that usually decorated it. Despite this, however, to Dipper, he was still pretty much perfect.

"I guess I have some explaining to do, don't I? You might as well come in." Bill then turned around and headed back into the apartment, leaving the doorway open for Dipper to enter. The apartment was a lot cleaner and organized than the brunet expected it to be, with light grey walls, decorated with art that mostly depicted triangles hung up in golden frames. The kitchen was unusually large for such a small living space, with polished surfaces and what seemed to be fairly advanced equipment, and the rest of the room was taken up by a collection of chairs and a television screen that was mounted to the wall. There were three doors that branched off the main living area, one of which was open and seemed to lead into a bedroom of some description, and the other two were closed. Bill was standing next to one of the chairs in the main living area, and, as Dipper approached, gestured for him to sit in it. The brunet obliged, and sat down, perched on the edge of the seat, his hands folded in his lap.

"Do you want something to drink? I can make you a coffee if you want." Bill questioned from where he was still standing from behind the seat.

"I'm fine- I had something to drink not too long ago." Bill nodded, then walked across the room and sat in one of the chairs opposite the one Dipper was sitting.

"That's good. It gives me one less thing to distract myself with. I guess it was only a matter of time before I had to tell someone other than Will all this stuff, and if I get distracted, I'll probably back out again." The blonde stared at his hands for a brief window of time, then looked up at Dipper again. "Where am I even supposed to start explaining things..?" The tone to his voice indicated that he was mostly addressing himself, rather than talking directly to Dipper. The previously anonymous youtuber ran a hand through his hair, as if trying to physically push his thoughts back into order, then exhaled heavily, and started speaking.

"This whole mess that I've gotten myself in has been going on for at least five years, I'd say. I did have a youtube channel that existed before mIndscape- Triangulum, it was called. I mostly filmed videos of me talking about my life, and explained conspiracy theories, paranormal happenings, those sort of events. I didn't think that my parents knew about Triangulum, or if they did know, they didn't seem to care. However, once I hit about three thousand subscribers on the channel, I posted a video about the long distance relationship I was in with my boyfriend at the time, who I actually met through youtube. It turned out that my parents did watch my videos, and I guess they weren't all that happy about the fact that I had a boyfriend." He let out a nervous sounding laugh, accompanied by a half-hearted smile.

"They waited until I had left the house to go and buy some food from the local store, then they went up to my room, where I hadn't logged off my computer, went onto my youtube channel, and deleted the whole thing. When I got back to the house, they had taken my computer, my phone, anything that I could have used to access the internet, all of it was gone. They told me that it was for my own good, that they were just doing what was right for me. They didn't let me leave the house unless it was absolutely necessary, and, when they gave me my things back after a month, most of my friends, and my boyfriend, thought I had decided that I was too good for them, and they had all moved on." Bill shifted in his seat, and it was evident to Dipper that he hadn't recounted this tale to anyone in a very long time.

"Things went downhill after that, relationship-wise. It just seems like, no matter what I do, I'm always going to fuck up some way or another. I always end up saying or doing something stupid that drives people away from me. I've upset so many people by just trying to be funny, and then I've just made it worse by trying to fix it. Hell, I've said some awful things." The blonde looked completely defeated by this point, curled up in the chair, tears visible at the corners of his eyes, threatening to spill over. Dipper was completely unused to seeing Bill in that state, so was unsure of what to do, his hands remaining clasped together in his lap, gaze flickering off to the side.

"I've laughed at people when I shouldn't be laughing at them, I've sat and talked about myself when I should be listening to others, I've been partially responsible for somebody almost _dying_ for fucks sake. I said so many stupid things to them, that they got up and left, but they forgot to check the road before they crossed, and…" He trailed off, leaving the sentence unfinished, however Dipper knew exactly what would have come after if the blonde had continued speaking, and felt a small, involuntary shudder pass over him, before he spoke for the first time in what felt like forever.

"I'm so sorry that you had to go through all of that." the brunet stared down at the floor, unsure of what to say. "I'm still not sure what it is that I did to upset you, though. Is it because me talking to you might have given people clues to the fact that you're mIndscape?" Bill let out an exasperated noise, shaking his head slightly.

"You're so clueless, you know that, right?" The look of frustration on Bill's face confused Dipper, and he opened his mouth to question the former Starbucks barista again, however he was beaten to the words, Bill cutting him off and speaking over him. "You actually have no idea…" He trailed off into a quiet, exasperated chuckle. "You know what, Pine Tree: Fuck you." Dipper flinched backwards at the blonde's sudden harsh words.

"I don't… I'm sorry? I guess that's-" The brunet managed to spit up a few, confused, jumbled words, before Bill cut him off again.

"I made a promise to myself that I'd never involve myself in other people's lives, because I'd just end up hurting them, and hurting myself. I didn't want to mess things up again, and I've been pretty good at keeping that promise, up until now." Dipper still felt confusion swimming through him, clouding his thoughts. The look of uncertainty that evidently crossed his face meant that he didn't need to voice his confusion, and Bill stood up sharply from his chair, and walked closer to Dipper.

"I thought that if I just left you alone, you'd forget about me and just move on, and then I'd be able to forget about you too. But you're awfully persistent, aren't you, Pine Tree?" Bill was leaning in far closer to Dipper than the brunet was used to, the flecks of gold that laced through his eyes visible, the slight shimmer of that seemed to have stained his eyelids from a long time of wearing glittering eye makeup now evident, the close proximity causing Dipper's heart to jump at a faster rate than the aspiring writer would have liked it to.

"You're not making life easy for me, Pine Tree; I hope you realise that." With that, the blonde leaned in even closer, close enough for Dipper to hear his breathing, and spoke in hushed tones. "You know what, fuck the whole promise thing." Then, before Dipper could register fully what was happening, Bill was kissing him. The whole thing was over in a matter of seconds, little more than a brief moment of contact, and the blonde pulled away from him before he could respond in any meaningful manner, leaving him sitting in the chair with a look of bewilderment on his face as Bill walked calmly back over to his chair, and sat back down. "Come on, Pine Tree. You have to have figured it out by now." Dipper blinked a few times to try and clear the thoughts that were flying wildly through his head, trying to put the things he wanted to say down into words. "Or am I going to have to make you ask me out on a date too?" The prompting note in Bill's voice was enough to finally inspire some hurried, slightly breathless words to formulate.

"Yeah, I think a date would be good."

* * *

As I said, this chapter was a very important one! I hope you enjoyed reading this, and I have to thank you all so much for being so supportive when I lost my motivation- I really appreciated every single one of your kind comments! And just as a reminder, I'll be posting updates and information about this fanfiction, and information about future fanfictions on Tumblr, on which my url is ghost-noises. Again, thankyou so much for reading, and I hope you have a very good time this Christmas!


	10. 10: Attempts at Conversation

Wow I managed to drag myself out from the void and get this trash written. I'm so sorry that this chapter is late! I kind of lost inspiration again, and I wasn't able to get back into the swing of writing till a few days ago. I'm so sorry if this chapter isn't the best- it's more just a sort of filler-ish chapter, so it probably isn't the most interesting. I apologize in advance for any out of character-ness, and for any grammar mistakes, but I hope you enjoy reading it!

* * *

 **Chapter Ten**

It took approximately ten minutes for Dipper to start panicking about the date he had been given the responsibility of planning. He was clueless about what Bill would enjoy doing- the blonde had rarely given any hints to what he did in his spare time, talking in a secretive manner as both Bill and mIndscape, something which had never truly bothered Dipper, up until this point.

He walked back to the Mystery Shack, still slightly flustered, and a little shaken, as a result from the prior events, all the while thinking desperately about the sort of thing he would plan for the date. He wouldn't usually make such a deal over something so trivial, however he wished to make a good first impression to Bill, and was unwilling to leave any opportunity for things to go wrong. In all honesty, Dipper had no idea what he was doing. I didn't want to risk making the date too plain, in the worry that Bill would find him uninteresting, but he also wished to avoid doing anything too outlandish in case the blonde thought he was trying too hard to impress him. As soon as he returned at the Mystery Shack, he headed straight into the office area and flipped open his computer, opening the word document that seemed to sit perpetually in the background of the desktop, a constant reminder that he had to write at some point. Inspiration had finally hit the brunet, and to take his mind off his current situation, he allowed words to flow onto the screen, the room silent aside from the steady tapping of his fingers upon the keyboard.

He didn't look up from his computer for about an hour, finally finishing up the chapter that had been sitting half written upon his computer for a number of days, then, stretching out his fingers to loosen up the tension in them, he headed into the kitchen and searched through the cupboards, making himself a pot of instant noodles to eat. He sat in the office to eat them, now unsure of what to do with his time, not having tours to run that day, and not able to spend his time talking to mIndscape, or Bill, as he should probably call him now, as he usually did on his days off.

Wanting to take his mind off the prospect of having to plan the date for later on that night, Dipper pulled out of his notebook full of ideas for videos, flicking through it to try and find a spot that he hadn't filmed at yet. He eventually settled on recording a short script that he had written about the colony of rare bats that lived in one of the caves. Pulling Journal number Three out of the draw in the desk, he flicked to the page on the bats, the handwriting in it mostly belonging to Ford, with a few scribbled notes of his own down the side, scanning over it to check the accuracy of the facts he had written, before grabbing his recording equipment and heading out, dropping the journal into his bag and swinging out of the door.

The rush of air and feeling of freedom that came with it was a welcome sensation for Dipper, who, having spent the past few days only leaving the Mystery Shack to run tours, was glad to have some time to walk around at his own pace without a crowd of tourists following after him. He already had some footage of the bats on his laptop, which him and Mabel had shot a few years ago on an infrared camera that Mabel had 'borrowed' from Pacifica's family, so he didn't need to do much actual filming, just talk a little about the bats and their habits. Dipper ran the script over in his head one last time as he approached the cave that the bats often resided in, before planting the camera tripod into the ground and setting it to record.

The recording process went smoothly, very little going wrong, which surprised Dipper, especially since a cluster of nerves had begun to gather inside of him about the date, which he had about three hours left to plan. Forcing the thought to the back of his mind, Dipper picked up his camera and tripod, which was partially submerged into the mud, and headed back in the direction of the Mystery shack, hoping that inspiration would strike him on the walk back.

However, no such inspiration came, and, with one hour left till he had agreed to go and collect Bill, he gave up, and grabbed his phone and a leaflet for a restaurant nearby that Grunkle stan had evidently picked up at some point, and dialed the number into his phone, planning to book a reservation for that night. He had pretty much given up on trying to organize anything fancier than that for now, and, once the table was booked, he decided to focus more on his appearance. Based on how he seemed to dress in his videos, Dipper could guess that Bill was definitely one to dress up in a fancy manner, and the brunet figured that he might as well make an effort to at least put some semi-decent clothes on.

A quick scan of his clothes, all of which were shoved hastily into a single draw, provided nothing promising, his searches only rewarding him with the rare occurrence of a pair of jeans that didn't have mud on them, and a shirt that looked nice, but was admittedly a little creased. A quick glance over at the clock announced to Dipper that he had about half an hour left before he was meant to collect Bill, so he decided to make do with the clothes he had just found, pulling them on and running his hands through his hair in an attempt to force it into submission, however he only seemed to make it worse, and grabbed his hat, forcing it down onto his head and sighing in frustration. He looked completely stupid.

Dipper couldn't remember the last time when he had actually cared about his appearance as much as he did at that particular moment, and felt himself deflate into a slouching position. He contemplated the option of just lying on the floor and never getting up again, however, after reminding himself that Bill would probably be offended if he didn't turn up, he stood up straight again, pulled on a coat and swung his bag over his shoulder, then headed outside , through the forest in the direction of Bill's apartment.

The brunet felt as if he would throw up as he reached Bill's door, the nerves gathering inside of him causing his legs to feel as if they would collapse under him if he took another step. He raised his hand and brought it down shakily on the middle of the door, the sound resonating clearly down the corridor. There were a few moments of silence, then the sound of footsteps, and the door swung open to reveal Bill standing there, smirking.

He was dressed in a pitch black tailcoat, emblazoned with triangular gold buttons, his hair wavy and seemingly brushed through with glitter, as it had a slightly sparkly quality, sweeping slightly over one of his eyes, both of which were outlined heavily with eyeliner, his eyelids coloured with golden pigments that sparkled in the lighting of his apartment. He looked absolutely stunning.

' As usual.' Dipper found himself adding to his original observation.

"So, are you ready to go?" Bill stepped out into the hallway as Dipper nodded, slamming the door behind him, the loud noise of it hitting the door-frame causing the brunet to flinch, and Bill to let out a chuckle of amusement. "So, where are we going, Pine Tree?"

"I just ended up booking a table at a restaurant nearby. I'm not the best at planning things, I'm afraid." Bill nodded in what Dipper hoped was approval, and reached down, taking the brunet's hand in his own and swinging it slightly, the contact of the golden rings that decorated the Youtuber's hands cold against Dipper's fingers. As he walked, Dipper took note of the fact that Bill seemed to be a fair amount taller than he was before, and a glance down at the youtuber's feet confirmed his suspicions- he was wearing a pair of high-heeled ankle boots that looked extremely painful to walk in, but boosted Bill up to Dipper's height, something which the blonde seemed very pleased with. Dipper was slightly mystified by how Bill was even managing to walk in the boots, but didn't bring up the subject, and continued to walk, silently glad that the restaurant he had chosen was both nearby and away from any muddy surfaces.

The two of them arrived at the restaurant in less than five minutes, the conversation between them evidently awkward, Dipper not certain with what to say, and Bill not seeming to know how to respond to what was in the most part complete silence, punctuated only by the click of his heels on the pavement. They took their seats in the restaurant, which was admittedly no fancy affair, merely a simple, fairly cheap destination, and sat in silence for a little while longer, neither of them seeming to know what to say.

"So, things have moved pretty fast in just one day." Bill was the first to break the quiet atmosphere, reaching up and running a hand through his hair. "I haven't done this sort of thing in quite a while." Dipper nodded his head slightly in response. He had barely had time to register the fact that it had only been that morning when he had figured out that Bill was in fact mIndscape; to him it felt like days had stretched past since that point.

"Yeah, things have gone pretty fast. This morning, I didn't even know that you were mIndscape, never mind that you'd actually want to do this sort of thing with me." Dipper gestured at the table, making a note of the candlelight that cast dancing shadows and quiet music playing in the background. Bill's gaze flickered from side to side warily at the brunet's statement.

"You might not want to speak about the whole Youtube thing out loud. There's no way of telling who could be listening to us." The blonde's golden eyes flickered from side to side again, sweeping over the room. The restaurant was small but fairly full, the whole place filled with the buzz of quiet chatter. Nobody was paying any attention to the two of them, but Bill still looked slightly uncomfortable.

"Bill, it's fine. There's nobody paying attention to us here." Dipper tried to provide words of reassurance, but the youtube still seemed a little uncertain, but covered it up with a wide smirk of sorts.

"You never know what methods the government has these days. For all we know, this table could open its eyes and run off to inform lurking agents of our presence at any moment." Hearing Bill's obscure statements in a tone that was anything less than shouting was odd for Dipper, but he forced it aside and knocked lightly on the table, leaning down and speaking softly.

"Hey, government table, if you don't mind it, could you please stop eavesdropping- it's pretty rude." Bill let out a slight huff of laughter at Dipper's statement, and also tapped on the table top.

"Fuck off, government table." A mother with two children sitting at the table with her glanced across to where Bill was sitting, evidently having heard his statement, and shot him a disapproving look. The blonde made a dramatic show of looking around sharply to fix the woman glaring at him with his golden eyes.

"Fuck." He spoke in a loud enough tone for pretty much the whole restaurant to hear, the challenging note to his voice apparent, and shrugged, a wide smirk decorating his face, then turned back to Dipper placing his elbows on the table and propping up his head with his hands.

"I thought you didn't want people paying attention to you?" Dipper asked in slight confusion.

"I never said I didn't want people to pay attention to me- I just don't want them to figure out the whole Youtube thing. The more people paying attention to me because I'm annoying them, the better." As always, to Dipper, the person sitting across to him was an enigma, a living contradiction- just because Dipper was now aware of mIndscape's identity, that didn't make him any easier to understand. The brunet's thoughts were interrupted as a plate of food was placed on the table in front of him. Glancing across the table, the aspiring writer took note of the fact that Bill seemed to have ordered the most expensive thing on the menu, and forced down a loud sigh. He hoped silently that he had brought enough money with him, otherwise he might have to ask Bill to pay for some of the meal, which wouldn't exactly be the most dignified way to end a first date.

"Excuse me, are you Dipper Pines?" Dipper blinked and looked up sharply to see a girl with short black hair standing off to the side of the table. Bill was looking towards the girl, his boldly lined eyes narrowed slightly, face displaying a slight look of confusion. The brunet nodded, and swung around in his chair to face the girl.

"Yeah, that's me. Do you need anything?" The puzzled tone to his voice was unmistakable as he spoke.

"I just wanted to ask something; you used to talk to the Youtuber mIndscape a lot, right?" Out of his peripheral vision, Dipper could see Bill jolt upright in his chair as if a bolt of electricity had passed through him. There were a few moments of silence, Bill sitting stiffly in his chair, trying to hide the startled expression on his face, the girl looking hopefully towards Dipper, and Dipper, sitting silently, thoughts conflicting inside of him. There was no correct way of going about the situation- every response could cause at least one party to feel bad or embarrassed or angry, and he had no idea about how to respond to the girl's question. Bill, however, reacted for Dipper, and stood up sharply pushing his chair away from the table, the legs screeching across the floor, and walked across the restaurant, returning a few seconds later with a box, into which he put his and Dipper's food, before pulling the brunet out of his seat.

"Sorry, we have to get going." the blonde turned to the girl, his voice harsh, then proceeded to walk towards the door, pulling Dipper along behind him. As soon as they emerged into the cold night air, Bill let out a shaky breath, falling backwards against a lamp-post, resting his head upon it and closing his eyes. The glare from the lamp cast upon him like a spotlight, however, instead of illuminating and enhancing the bold, showy impression that Bill seemed to radiate, it only made him look more vulnerable. Dipper moved over to where the blonde was leaning up against the metal post, but was shooed away as as soon as the Youtuber saw him approaching.

"I'm fine now. I just got a little bit of a shock." Bill unpeeled himself from the lamp-post and stood upright again, raising a hand instinctively to fix his hair, the glitter that laced it shimmering in the sweep of light cast by the lamp above him. "Sorry about that- this really wasn't how I pictured tonight going." Dipper nodded to acknowledge the statement.

"We should maybe stay away from restaurants for a while." Dipper suggested, and Bill nodded in response.

"Sounds like a good idea." He laughed slightly, evidently trying to prove to Dipper that he was completely fine.

"How about we go and eat this back at your apartment?"

"Yeah. That sounds good."

* * *

Thankyou so so much for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the trash!


	11. 11: Happy

I think it's pretty obvious that the update schedule for this fanfiction has gone to shit. I'm so so sorry for not updating sooner, and this chapter is mediocre at best so it really doesn't make up for it, but I've been stuck in writers block and my computer keeps crashing for the past few weeks, so that's the only explanation I really have for why it took so long for me to get this up. But it's here now, and I really hope that you enjoy it, and I apologize for any grammar mistakes I may have made!

* * *

 **Chapter Eleven**

Dipper found himself spending a lot more of his free time in Bill's apartment than expected. After the disastrous night at the restaurant- which had ended in the brunet realizing that he hadn't even paid for the meal and traipsing back to the restaurant from Bill's house at 11:30pm to pay and apologize- the blonde had seemed reluctant to take their relationship anywhere outside of his place of residence.

When in the comfort of his own home, Bill seemed to act a lot like mIndscape, which, admittedly, did take a little while for Dipper to adjust to; especially in the instances when he'd arrive at the door to find Bill lying on the floor, legs propped up on some piece for furniture, and be greeted by a shout of "Just ignore me, I'm plotting out the inevitable death of this tiny planet.". However, after about a week, that all simply faded into normality- just another part of the routine that had developed wordlessly between them.

During the daytimes, Dipper would run tours of the forest, and Bill would film his videos, then, after the two of them were done, the brunet would head over to the other's apartment, and the two would simply just sit together in enjoyment of each other's company, Bill glad for the feeling of someone sitting beside him as he edited his videos, Dipper glad to see the youtuber smiling and laughing every time he added in a stupid sound effect or came up with a witty joke to insert into the edits.

The two of them were simply just _happy._

Happy to sit beside each other, Bill with his legs draped over Dipper's lap.

Happy to eat home cooked food, or, on busier nights, order takeaways and sit on the floor staring across the whole of Gravity Falls out of the tall glass windows of the apartment.

Happy to just lie there for hours on end, Bill's head fitted comfortably against Dipper's shoulder, his hair lightly tickling the brunet's chin, breaths falling into synchrony.

Happy to laugh at all the times Bill forgot to take his mask off after filming and tripped over things.

Happy to steal quick, sweet kisses that simply said _' I'm still here' 'I'm not going anywhere' ._

Just Happy.

Of course, it wasn't all smooth running at the start. It took at least a week of apprehension and uncertainty before Bill fully began to relax around Dipper- the first few days after the date to the restaurant filled with silence that was awkward rather than companionable, and conversations that didn't interest either of the participants- however when things began to ease around them, they did so quickly. Bill the Starbucks barista's smooth talking and clumsily flirtatious gestures and mIndscape's strange humor and forward comments seemed to blend together into a personality that was entirely new, however, as cliche as he cursed himself for being, Dipper found himself falling head over heels for the blonde faster than he had before.

Bill wasn't exactly keen to let him forget that either, the youtuber finding himself taking extreme pride in being able to fluster the brunet so easily, sneaking quick kisses whenever he could, just to enjoy the surprised look on the taller male's face.

The two of them kept the relationship strictly to the confines of one another's places of residency however- if they saw each other outside during the day, the only interaction between them would be a brief smile to acknowledge each other's presence, occasionally a light touch on the shoulder or back if they walked past one another, nothing more. Dipper was fine with this; in his mind, it just made the lazy evenings they spent together all the more special, yet another thought that he condemned as painfully cliche.

"Pine tree, what are you hiding?" Dipper shifted slightly in confusion from where he sat on the arm of the chair Bill was sitting in, the blonde in the chair also adjusting his position so that he could keep resting his head against the brunet's arm.

"What do you mean?"

"You never take that hat you're wearing off." Dipper let out a barely audible sigh of relief that it was just one of Bill's mIndscape-esque monologues he had to sit through rather than bringing up a serious concern, and shrugged.

"Not everyone can have their hair looking as perfect as yours all the time, you know." Bill let out a loud laugh at the brunet's statement, twisting around to face the person sitting on the arm of his chair.

"I know that much, Pine Tree, but I'm sure your hair is fine too." Reaching up, Bill seized Dipper's hat before the brunet could protest, and removed it from his head, allowing the ruffled, undignified mess of unbrushed hair that sat barely contained beneath it to spring free. The Blonde sat and stared at him for a few seconds with an unnervingly scrutinising gaze, before shaking his head and roughly shoving the hat back down onto Dipper's head. "I changed my mind. That is anything but fine."

"I can't help it that my hair is a sentient being." A wide smirk slid onto Bill's features, and he leaned up from his computer to poke Dipper in the forehead.

"Oh, so I'm guessing that's why you take all the food for yourself- you have to feed your hair as well as your flesh-prison."

"What?" Dipper's response was indignant. "I do not take all the food for-" He was cut off as Bill stretched up and pulled him down from the arm of the chair onto the seat beside him. Moving in close enough for Dipper to feel the blonde's breath against his skin, Bill placed both his hands on the brunet's shoulders, the smirk still lingering on his features as he leaned forwards and kissed him, then kissed him again, further to the left, just on the side of his mouth, before moving around to whisper in his ear, voice low yet still holding a teasing note.

"You totally do." Dipper let out a loud huffing sigh, before reaching up and detaching Bill from his shoulders.

"Fuck you, Bill." The smirk on the blonde's face morphed into a wide, shit-eating grin.

"Well, I mean if you're offering then-" The sound of a Skype 'call incoming' tone interrupted the youtuber, something which Dipper was honestly quite glad for, until he spotted the ID of the caller on the screen.

"Bill, why is my sister Skype calling you?"

"Oh, we talk quite a lot, actually. She mainly just tells me embarrassing stories about you and I make notes of them for possible blackmail opportunities. You know, the usual." Dipper was about to protest, but Bill reached over and shoved him roughly off the chair, causing him to crash onto the floor by the blonde's feet. "Get under the desk and hide there until the call is done." With that, Bill snatched up his

mask and pulled it on over his face, and picked up the voice changer, then answered the call.

Dipper couldn't hear much of what the two of them were saying from where he was bundled up underneath the desk, but from the way Bill, or mIndscape as he was at that point of time, was laughing, he could guess that whatever story Mabel was sharing about him was something that the youtuber wouldn't let him live down for a while.

He made an internal note to Skype Pacifica later and tell her about the time Mabel had tried to eat a ball of wool when the two of them were ten. The conversation went on for a few infuriating and uncomfortable minutes, Dipper having been kicked in the side multiple times in the side by Bill's boots due to his position under the desk, unable to complain about it because Mabel had no idea that he was down there. The brunet let out a sigh of relief when Bill's face, the mIndscape mask flipped up on top of his head, appeared over the edge of the desk and beckoned him back up.

Dipper staggered to his feet, stretching out his legs, then let out a shocked exclamation as Bill grabbed his arm and pulled him into the chair beside him, almost sending the two of them toppling over the back of the spinning chair, a breathy laugh escaping the blonde as Dipper had to swing his arms around Bill to keep the two of them steady, the smirk from earlier filling out Bill's features as he flopped backwards, allowing the brunet to support the both of them.

"If you let go of me, Pine Tree, I'm going to tell everyone that the Mystery Shack is stupid." Bill's threat was lazy, and he threw his arms back and closed his eyes, leaving Dipper to keep him upright, the mask falling off his head and toppling to the floor.

"Oh no, what would I _possibly_ do if you did such a thing." The brunet's response was sarcastic, However a small voice sounded from the computer, and Bill's relaxed form stiffened and sprung out of Dipper's arms, a look of wide-eyed horror upon his face.

"You uhh... You forgot to hang up on the call." Mabel's face was still visible on the computer screen.

"Shit...Shit…" Bill's voice was breathless with panic as he snatched the mask back up off the floor, pulling it back over his face before pushing Dipper roughly out of the way as he sat down on the chair. "How much did you see?" His voice was demanding, yet every word still shook with worry.

"I saw pretty much everything. I'm sorry, I should have hung up when you started taking the mask off, but then I heard Dipper and I got curious." Bill's elbows thudded down on the table as he cradled the sides of his head in his hands, his fingers tangling into his hair.

"Did you take any screenshots of my face? Please delete them. Please. I can't…" The blonde's voice trailed away and was replaced with nothing but the sounds of his breathing, quiet gasping noises, muffled by the material of the mask.

"Why would I do that?" Mabel's voice was questioning and innocent, displaying a look of confusion. Bill raised his head slightly. "You obviously don't want to have your identity revealed, so I wouldn't do anything like that, and neither would anyone else. Sure, people do want to know what you look like, but I'm pretty sure the people who watch your videos also respect you as a person."

"Mabel is right." Dipper spoke up for the first time in the conversation. "I also started off wanting to find out who you were, but even if I had found out in the way I intended to, I never would have told anyone. I don't think anyone would." The brunet reached over and placed a hand on Bill's back in what he hoped was a comforting gesture.

"You think so?" Bill sat up and adjusted the mask. "You really wouldn't tell anyone?" When Mabel nodded, the youtuber let out a disbelieving laugh, and turned to Dipper, evidently grinning despite the mask that hid his face. "She's not going to tell anyone. It's all okay." His voice was filled with a sense of almost childish relief. "It's actually okay."

"Now that's out of the way though, would you mind explaining this?" Mabel gestured to Dipper and Bill. "How long has this been happening exactly?" Bill responded, his posture now relaxed, a sense of pure relief seeming to fill him, as if he was glad to be able to talk about everything that had happened without worry.

"It's kind of a confusing story, but it's been about two weeks since this whole thing happened."

"And when were you planning to announce it?" Bill glanced over at Dipper, who shrugged.

"We weren't exactly going to. It would probably give away too many clues about the fact that Bill lives in Gravity Falls." Mabel looked slightly exasperated.

"You know, there are people who would probably be very happy to see this happening." Dipper glanced over to his sister in confusion as Bill gave a slight, choking laugh at the person on the other end of the Skype call's statement.

"I'm pretty sure he has no idea about the whole shipping thing, you know." the blonde seemed extremely amused at Dipper's confusion, and reached up, pulling him back into the chair. "Let me tell you a little bit about the mIndscape and Journal Number Four fanclub that seems to have started up in the past month." Dipper was concerned to say the least.

"I'm going to leave you to educate my poor, innocent brother." Mabel waved slightly at the webcam. "Good luck, Dipdop!" then the screen cut off, leaving Dipper with a widely smirking Bill sitting next to him, the mask now pushed back up on top of his head.

"So, I'm surprised you haven't found out about it yet, but there is a custom amongst a certain group of people on the internet, that deems that as soon as two people talk to each other, then it's acceptable to start insisting that they're in a relationship, then start writing and drawing hypothetical scenarios for that relationship that usually turns into porn."

"Wait what? People are doing that with us?"

"Yes. How about we go and find some?"

"What, no! Why would I want to look at that?"

"You know you want to, Pine Tree."

"Trust me, I really don't."

* * *

Im so sorry I half-assed that ending so so badly omf  
Anyway though, I hope you enjoyed reading this installment of trash, and thankyou so so much for reading it!


	12. 12: Apples and Popcorn

/Flashbacks to when this fanfiction actually had a good update schedule  
Okay so I'm really sorry that this is late- my computer has been fucking up pretty badly, and I've generally been disliking my writing quite a lot, but I managed to get myself in gear and finish this chapter, even though my computer crashed about ten times in the process of writing it rip me  
Anyway, I hope you like it, even if it is a little shorter than usual, and very long overdue!

* * *

 **Chapter Twelve**

Bill made it a custom to greet Dipper at the door every night by reading extracts of the filthiest fanfictions he could find on the internet.

Every time he walked through the door, it was almost instantaneous, Bill instantly on his feet, sometimes even on the nearest item of furniture, heralding his arrival with words that caused Dipper to swing around and close the door as fast as he possibly could out of fear that someone would walk past on the stairwell and hear it, face flushed with embarrassment, before walking over and attempting to knock Bill off whatever he was standing on, usually resulting in a brief chase around the apartment, the youtuber leaping between items of furniture and Dipper running after him, before Bill would eventually topple over and the two would collapse into a laughing mess on the floor.

So naturally, Dipper was a little concerned when Bill opened the door quietly, about a week after the conversation with Mabel- 'The Skype incident', as the blonde had dubbed it- his hair tousled upon his head as if he had been running his hands through it, a nervous habit that Dipper had picked up on Bill doing.

"So, I've been thinking."

"Well, there's a first." Dipper let out a laugh, trying to skate around the feelings of worry that had begun to develop inside of him. Bill shot him an unimpressed look; raised eyebrows and a slight hint of a childish pout.

"Shut up, Pine Tree. I was thinking about what you said- about how the only reason you figured out that I'm mIndscape was because you knew me both in person and over the internet- and I realised that, even if I do talk a little bit about my personal life on my channel, people probably aren't going to figure out who I am just going off that." Despite the hesitant note to his voice, his face was one of assurance, and Dipper nodded, urging him to continue talking. "So I want to announce that we're a thing; if that's okay with you of course- because if I did, we wouldn't be able to do any sort of romantic stuff, or even really be seen together, outside of the Mystery Shack or here, and I know that's kind of what we do anyway, but I just wanted to clarify with you before I go and do anything properly." There was a hopeful expression on Bill's face as he finished.

"Well, if that's what you want to do- then I'm up for it." Bill's face morphed into a wide grin, and he swept Dipper up into a hug, kissing him briefly before pulling back, the grin now morphed into a smirk.

"I can't wait to see the sort of shit people are going to start drawing and writing after we announce this." A nervous half laugh, half smile escaped the brunet.

"I think I might sit out on all of that."

"Oh come on- I know you love my little performances." Bill grabbed Dipper's wrist and began to drag him over to the recording room, snatching up an apple from a bowl that sat on one of the smooth kitchen surfaces as he moved past it.

"I beg to differ." He watched as Bill took a bite of the apple. "Give me a bite, I'm hungry." The blonde grinned and tossed it back to the aspiring writer, who bit into it.

"You just touched stuff that I touched with my mouth with your mouth; that's gross." Bill's remark earned a questioning glance from Dipper as he took a bite from the apple.

"Says the one that was kissing me less than a minute ago." The youtuber shrugged, teasing grin all too apparent, before pulling him into the recording room, sitting down heavily in the spinning chair and pulling Dipper into it next to him, the chair wobbling precariously as the brunet half sat, half fell into it, his hat slipping down over his eyes, the apple falling out of his hand and rolling under the desk. Reaching out and pushing the brim of the hat back up onto Dipper's head properly, Bill leaned forwards and began sorting out his recording equipment, turning on his laptop and adjusting the cameras. Dipper fished into the pocket of the jacket he was wearing and pulled out a creased sheet of lined paper and a pen, placing it down on the desk in front of him, as if to start writing.

"Should I start planning out a script?" The blonde shook his head, and swiped the pen out of Dipper's hand, a faint clattering noise sounding as it hit the ground and rolled under the desk to join the apple.

"No, we're not doing the whole planning ahead thing with this. We're making this spontaneous so I don't change my mind, and if we fuck up and say something stupid, then we can just edit it out." Dipper nodded, unused to the sight of a camera pointing towards him with no script or pre-planned words to guide him. Bill seemed equally as nervous, drawing in a shaky breath before pulling the illuminati mask over his face and grabbing the voice changer, flicking the camera on and staring straight towards it.

"Greetings, flesh puppets from the third dimension!" He spoke in an animated manner, waving one hand, the other being used to hold onto the voice changer that distorted his voice. "This is mIndscape here, and with me, I have a skin-bag going by the name of Dipper Pines, or Journal Number 4 as you may know him." Dipper raised a hand and waved slightly at the camera, unsure of what to do, flinching inwardly as he thought about how awkward the motion must look.

"Yes, this is the same Dipper Pines that you all keep writing some very dirty stuff about." Dipper could visualize the smirk that would be apparent behind the mask if he could see Bill's face. "Yes, I have seen the fanfiction you've all been writing: You're all filthy sinners and I should be kinkshaming the whole lot of you." There was a pause, as Bill stopped to gather his thoughts, trying to quickly think of what to say. "That's not entirely the topic of this video, however, although it is related. Me and Pine Tree here have an announcement to make, and it's that we're what a lot of you would call 'canon'. In words that would make sense to the rest of the world, we are indeed dating." Bill's words were confident, however his foot was tapping against the ground in a nervous manner, and Dipper reached out under the table and placed a hand against his leg in an attempt to provide some sort of support.

"So there we go- it's out there. Pine Tree might be a shitty nerd, but he's a pretty great shitty nerd, and I wanted everyone to know that. That's pretty much it from me- now it's time to watch the comments section to implode, and for me to sign off and watch the chaos." Bill reached up and moved his hand in a salute of sorts, his usual end to his videos. "Remember, Reality is an illusion, The universe is a hologram, buy gold, bye!" He reached out and cut off the video footage, and practically deflated in his seat, a nervous burst of laughter escaping him as he pushed the mask up off his face and turned to Dipper. "Quick, help me edit it before I lose my nerve and delete the recording."

The video took very little time to edit it, the majority of it spent with Bill laughing at how confused Dipper looked throughout the entire video, sitting there quietly while the blonde talked, hat pulled down over his eyes slightly for the duration of the recording.

They left it to upload, heading out of the recording room, and the moment they got into the main sitting area, Bill slumped down onto the side of one of the armchairs, then slid down it and ended up lying down on the carpet underneath the window, where the sunset light had begun to pour in, staining the walls with pink and blue tinges. Dipper sat down next to Bill, and the youtuber shuffled closer to him, lifting his head up and lying it across the brunet's chest. They lay in silence for a few moments, staring up at the flat colour of the ceiling, before Bill spoke.

"I'm just waiting for the stream of messages from Will that I'm going to get the moment it uploads." Dipper laughed slightly.

"Well, I've had to endure stuff from Mabel, so it's only fair that you get interrogated by your sibling now." The brunet could tell that Bill was smiling from the tone of his voice as he responded.

"Yeah, but being interrogated by Will is terrifying. He just seems to know everything. It's like some sort of supernatural power- he's been doing it for as long as I can remember." There was a small lazy laugh from the youtuber. "He started off by trying to psychoanalyse our cat when he was nine."

"I'm guessing you caused a lot more trouble than him?"

"You know me too well- I was that one kid who nobody would allow near the kitchen out of fear that they would find a knife and commit mass murder at the age of seven." More laughter. "I'm surprised this apartment is still intact if I'm perfectly honest- I probably should have set fire to it by now." Another silence extended out between them, and Dipper reached across, absentmindedly playing with Bill's hair as they both lay there.

"Your hair is soft." He mused quietly, more to himself than to anyone else, and the blonde reached up to prod the piece of Dipper's hair that stuck from under the brim of his hat, but missed and poked him in the forehead instead.

"And your hair is a mess." Dipper pouted childishly and removed his hands from Bill's hair, sitting up and causing the youtuber to slide off his chest.

"Stop being a bully- my hair is a sentient being and you know that. I can't help it." Bill scrambled up into a sitting position too, smirking widely at the brunet.

"I'll bully you all I want- you're the one that decided to be all nerdy and attractive and dragged me down into this whole thing." Dipper only laughed in response, and flicked the blonde on the nose in a way that he hoped seemed affectionate. "Hey, Pine Tree, do you want to stay here for tonight? It's getting dark and we can sit and watch the comments section of the video explode." The aspiring writer blinked owlishly, then nodded.

"If you want!" He started to rise to his feet. "Should I go back to the Mystery Shack and get a sleeping bag or something?" Bill snorted in an unattractive manner, evidently amused, then broke down into laughter, having to pause for a few seconds to compose himself before continuing the conversation.

"Pine Tree, we're adults and we're also dating- I think we can be trusted to sleep in the same bed." The amused, teasing look still remained on his face. "Next you're going to be calling up your parents:" He put on an overly exaggerated impression of Dipper's voice. "'Hey, mom, can I go to Bill's house for a sleepover?'" Bill descended into a fit of laughter again, slumping back against the armchair, the unimpressed glare upon the brunet's face just causing him to find the situation more amusing, running a hand through his hair to try and pull himself back into order, freckled cheeks flushed slightly.

"Oh, ha ha, let's all laugh at Dipper, shall we?" Bill opened his mouth to respond, but Dipper cut him off. "That was rhetorical." The blonde leaned over and swung an arm around Dipper's shoulders, pressing a light kiss to his cheek in an attempt to ease the frown off his face.

"Aww, Pine Tree, I was just joking." Dipper rolled his eyes, and allowed a smile to slip back onto his features, leaning over to kiss Bill properly. The two of them sat in silence again, staring up to the window, where the stars had begun to emerge from behind a thin haze of clouds, the streetlamp across the road flickering slightly, the bulb evidently running low. Dipper was beginning to debate saying something sickly and romantic, but was glad to be cut off by the movement of Bill shifting beside him and standing up.

"Come on, I'll make some popcorn, and we can go and watch the internet flip its shit."

* * *

Don't worry, stuff will be happening in the next few chapters that is a lot more interesting than these two shitty nerds sitting around. Anyway, I hope you liked reading it, and I'm really sorry about any grammar mistakes or out of character-ness! Hopefully I'll be able to produce more trash updates soon- I guess it all depends on how much of a dick my computer decides to be


	13. 13: Shopping

Wow look who finally decided to update this thing! I'm so sorry for disappearing for so long- my computer has been a bit of a dick lately and keeps crashing, so keeping it on for long enough to write has been pretty difficult! But I'm back again with the next installment of trash, and hopefully I'll be able to get another chapter written pretty soon! Just as a note, this chapter is set maybe about three weeks after the previous one, and since the video explaining their relationship, Dipper and Bill have probably filmed quite a few videos together. Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading this!

* * *

 **Chapter Thirteen**

Dipper was awoken by the sound of glass shattering.

He sat straight upright in bed, throwing the covers away from where they were tangled around his arms, and flicked the light on, panic shaking away the bleariness of sleep from his limbs as he saw a jagged hole smashed into the window of the room he was sleeping in. Swinging his legs out, putting on his glasses, he stepped over towards the window, careful not to stand on the shards of glass that scattered across the floorboard. He looked down to spot a rock, sitting amongst the splinters, evidently the implement used to break the window. Leaning forwards, he peered out of the Mystery Shack, the faint glow of the sun as it began to push its was above the horizon indicating that it was far too early in the morning to be awake, never mind dealing with broken windows.

"Sorry! I think I threw it a bit too hard!" Dipper blinked down at the figure standing on the ground, looking up at him sheepishly.

"Bill, what the fuck?!" The blonde had the mIndscape mask balanced on top of his head, and was grinning, raising a hand to wave cheerily at Dipper.

"I had to wake you up some way, didn't I?" Dipper shook his head, wincing slightly as he peeled his hands away from the windowsill, a spike of glass dropping from where it had stabbed into his palm. He reached for his phone, and let out a loud, grumbling sigh.

"Bill, It's five am. You really didn't need to wake me up." He paused, looking down at the Youtuber again. "Why do you have your mask on?"

"Observant as ever, Pine Tree!" He pulled the edge of the mask, tilting it down over his eyes. "We're going shopping together, and I'm going to film stuff and upload it! I'm pretty sure the internet will throw itself off a cliff if we don't make another video together- They all pretty much had an aneurism after the last one." Bill's words brought Dipper back to memories of the last video they had filmed together; a Nerf war that had ended in a trip to A&E after Bill accidentally slammed a cupboard door on Dipper's arm.

"I don't see why that would involve you waking me up at stupid o'clock in the morning." Bill flipped the mask back up on top of his head, pushing his blonde curls away from his forehead with it.

"Well, I did some thinking, and I figured that we could prevent people from figuring out that I live here in Gravity Falls by going shopping somewhere that's at least a few hours drive away from here." He raised a hand to his chin, suddenly deep in thought. "Mind you though, they might be expecting that, so if we did go somewhere close, then that might make them all rule out Gravity falls completely because they would never think that I would film a video somewhere near where I live…" He trailed away, glancing off to the side, eyebrows furrowed as he muttered to himself. He dismissed whatever he was considering with a sharp shake of his head. "Nah, I'm overthinking this." He perked back up again, wide grin flashing back into place. "So, are you coming or not? I mean, it's not like I'm giving you a choice, but still." Dipper sighed, knowing that there was no point in disagreeing with the enthusiastic Youtuber.

"Give me five minutes to get changed." Bill's grin widened even further, and Dipper was certain that it couldn't be natural for someone to be able to smile that much.

"Brilliant! I'm going to need you to drive us there, just thought I should mention. I don't have a car, and even if I did, I can't see shit in this mask, so I'd probably rack up a pretty high death count by the time we reached the shops." Dipper sighed again, glancing once more at the shattered window. He didn't want to think about how much it would cost to repair. Picking up a book, he propped it up to cover the hole in the glass, before calling down to Bill.

"You owe me a coffee."

Bill refused outright to stop at the Gravity Falls Starbucks along the way, so Dipper ended up sitting in the front of the car, a cheap gas station coffee in one hand, the steering wheel in the other, Bill sat next to him, watching the GPS on his phone, his feet propped up on the dashboard. When Dipper had emerged from the Mystery Shack and headed over to the car, the blonde had insisted on vocalising his need to call shotgun, despite the fact that nobody else was around to sit there other than him. When Dipper had questioned him, he had shrugged it off as habit, making an offhand comment about him and William constantly fighting over who got to sit in the front of the car on family trips.

Admittedly, Dipper found it unusual to imagine Bill being part of a normal family, doing normal family things- all prior stories he had been told by the blonde had either been about how much of an asshole his parents were, or about times when he had done some pretty destructive stuff; setting fire to the curtains, hoarding dead mice in a shoebox under his bed, pulling a light fitting out of the ceiling by trying to swing on it.

He was only made aware of the fact that he had completely spaced out when Bill reached over and plugged his phone into the AUX input of the car, setting some music to play. Dipper immediately recognised the opening notes of Disco Girl playing out into the car, and turned to Bill, who shot him a smug grin from out of the side of the mask in return.

"You listen to BABBA?" Dipper questioned him, and the blonde laughed in response.

"No, but I know you do." He spotted the confused expression on the brunet's face, and elaborated. "I spotted a shitload of their CDs on your bookshelves, so I downloaded some tracks by them."

"You know, I'm not sure whether I should be flattered that you noticed something like that, or find it creepy as fuck that you were looking through my bookshelves. Those CDs were well hidden." Bill shrugged.

"Well, I could always just put some of my music on if it-" Dipper cut him off.

"No, there's no way I'm spending another two hours listening to your weird ass music." He gripped the steering wheel, the sky above them turning shades of milky blue as the sun began to rise. Bill began to sing along to the lyrics, glancing over as Dipper sunk into the car seat, scrunching up his nose in distaste.

"C'mon Pine Tree, you know you want to sing along!" Bill was evidently smirking under the mask he had pulled over his face as he launched into the chorus of the song. " _Disco Girl, Coming through, That girl is youuu!_ " He grinned and continued to sing, placing his arms behind his head and leaning back in the seat. Dipper tried to dismiss the fact that the blonde was actually a decent singer, not wanting to give him too much credit. The brunet only allowed himself to hum along quietly to the song, tapping his fingertips against the steering wheel.

Half an hour later, the two of them were cruising down the road at high speed, the windows rolled down so that anyone they passed could hear them both singing.

They pulled into the shopping center car park after two and a half hours of driving, and the moment they had parked, they both stumbled out, shaking out their legs to remove the stiffness that had developed from sitting still for so long. Bill flipped out his camera again, having brought it out multiple times already on the journey there, shooting short video clips of the two of them singing obnoxiously along to unnecessarily loud music, of Dipper drinking his coffee, of the sunrise as the scenery rolled past them. He propped the camera up on the top of the car, setting it to record, pulling out a sheet of crumpled paper from his pocket as he did so.

"Okay, so this isn't just going to be shopping for normal stuff- I asked some of my friends to send me some stuff for us to find and buy, so this is probably going to end up getting pretty weird, judging by the sort of people I spend my time talking to," He grinned behind the mask. "Yeah, you freaks know who you are." He applied the term 'freaks' in an affectionate manner.

Dipper took the sheet of paper out of Bill's hands, scanning over it. Bill leaned over his shoulder to read it as well, swinging an arm around the brunet to steady himself as he did so. He let out a loud obnoxious laugh as he reached an item halfway down the list.

"Okay, Pyronica, I know it was you that decided to add 'hot pink lingerie' to the list of stuff we had to find." Bill collected the camera, and glanced back at the first item on the list. "Duct Tape, that one should be easy."

The two of them traipsed around the shopping center for at least an hour, gradually accumulating a bag full of increasingly strange objects- an electric whisk, a box of light bulbs, a kitchen knife, a four pack of beer, condoms, an eraser in the shape of a dog, a toy crossbow and, of course, hot pink lingerie, as requested, acquiring which had involved the cashier asking if Bill was purchasing it for a girlfriend, and Bill responding with: "No, it's for me." before walking out of the shop in a sweep of obnoxious laughter and glitter.

"Holy shit."

An awed voice sounded behind Dipper as he begrudgingly pushed a trolley, which Bill had decided to sit in, around the largest food store they could find, the Youtuber's high heels kicking out one end of the trolley, holding the camera languidly in one hand as they scoured the store for macaroons. The blonde and the brunet both looked around to see a group of three teenagers, staring towards them with a look of slight wonder in their eyes. "You're mIndscape, right?"

"Hey, Pine Tree, they recognised me first, do I get extra points for that?"

Bill handled the majority of the conversation with the group, and Dipper allowed himself to tune out, leaning his arms against the trolley, glancing towards Bill. The Youtuber was wearing high heels, shorts and an obnoxious yellow sweater vest, his hair brushed through with glitter, his voice muffled by the mask, yet still held its obnoxious, self-assertive tone, everything about him loud, bold and generally unnecessary, and Dipper found himself wondering how he had even managed to put up with Bill, never mind end up in a relationship with him. It was a mystery to him, how loud comments about the possible ways in which the universe could end and 3am texts about the scientific value of deer teeth could cause such a warm feeling of affection inside of him. He blinked, and shook his head, cursing himself once again for acting like the cliche, lovesick characters that he always tried to avoid in his writing.

"Onwards, my loyal steed!" The brunet was jolted free from his thoughts once again as Bill tugged on his wrist, the group having dispersed and moved on. The Youtuber pointed down the aisle, kicking his feet slightly. "Come on, we need to get those macaroons."

Another hour passed, and the two of them found themselves at the door to the music shop of the shopping center, having been instructed to find a book of BABBA sheet music. Dipper had a suspicion that Bill had been the one to contribute that idea to the list. The blonde had a slight nostalgic look to him as he stepped into the music shop, his hand pulling away from where he had been holding onto Dipper's wrist.

"You go and check over there for the music, I'll look over here." Dipper found himself standing alone in the doorway to the music shop, the camera held in one hand, Bill having darted off to the other side of the shop. Shaking his head slightly, the brunet headed over to the sheet music to search for the specified item.

He found it within a few minutes, pulling the book of music down off the shelf it was displayed on, tucking it under his arm to obscure the cover of it so nobody would think he was voluntarily buying a BABBA music book (definitely not, when would he ever do something like that. The brunet tried to dismiss the knowledge of the copy of the exact same book of music that was positioned on one of the bookshelves back in the Mystery Shack.).

He headed back over to the side of the shop that Bill had disappeared into, picking his way through the guitar section and into the place where pianos were stored. As he made his way into that section of the store, he began to pick up the light sound of someone playing a melody on one of the pianos towards the back of the section. A brief scan of the area confirmed his suspicions; Bill was sat with the mask still covering his face, playing out a quiet tune and singing along, his foot tapping along to create a beat for himself to follow. Dipper made his way closer, moving so that the blonde wouldn't see him, starting up a recording on the camera, partially for blackmail material, and partially because whatever Bill was playing sounded really fucking good.

" _...Don't know where, don't know when! Oh, I know we'll meet again, some sunny day!"_ Dipper recognized the lyrics to what the Youtuber was singing as he got closer towards him. He stood and listened for a while, observing the precise way that Bill pressed out chords and melodies from the piano, the way his voice was high-pitched and a little strange, but still sounded unfairly good. Waiting for the song to finish, the brunet spoke up from where he stood behind Bill.

"I didn't know you could play the piano." Bill jumped slightly and whirled around, letting out a relieved breath as he saw it was only Dipper who was standing behind him.

"I learned it a little while ago- I haven't played it in a really long time though, so I don't really remember much." He glanced up and caught sight of the camera that Dipper still had angled towards him. "Traitor."

"If you're thinking about getting me to delete the recording, then don't even try. This is perfect blackmail material." From the way the blonde sat and looked up at him, Dipper could tell that he would be smirking behind the mask he was wearing. The smirk was confirmed, as Bill reached up and pushed the mask up his face a little way, and leaned up, pulling Dipper into a kiss. The brunet could feel the Youtuber grinning against his own lips, and, as Bill's hands made their way over to the camera, evidently assuming that Dipper was distracted enough, he pulled it out of his reach, stepping back and displaying a look of mock disappointment.

"I told you, don't even try." Bill pulled the mask back down, folding his arms childishly.

"Fine- if you get to tell people about the piano thing, then I get to tell everyone about how much you love BABBA." The blonde's entire posture called out smugness, his words dripping with it. There was a long pause between them.

"Okay, now you're the traitor."

* * *

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Also, I just want to say a huge thankyou to everyone who has commented, read or left favourites on this- seriously, all of it means so much to me! And, a final thing, I'm sad to announce that, after this chapter, there are only two more chapters left to go of this fanfiction before it's finished. Don't worry though, I'm definitely not going to stop writing for this trash ship any time soon- I do have other fanfictions planned that should be released very soon after this one is finished! Once again, thankyou so so much for reading!


	14. 14: Clifftop

Yes I know I disappeared for fucking ages  
Yes I am very sorry  
No, this chapter is not good enough to serve as an apology

* * *

 **Chapter Fourteen**

Dipper finished writing the initial draft of his book a month later. The final few words came with a steady exhalation of breath, a sense of warm relief filling him as he typed out the last letters onto the word document. Editing could wait for another day- all he wished to do was sit and bask in the hazy fulfillment for a little longer. He resolved to call up Mabel to announce his achievement; he hadn't talked to her in a while, and he felt that she would be pleased to hear from him.

"Hey Mabel, you there?" Mabel's face flashed into view on the monitor of Dipper's computer as he opened up Skype and called her. Her hair had changed once again, and was now pastel pink, tied up into a short ponytail, strands of it falling loose across her face.

"Hey Dipdop!" Her grin was infectious, and Dipper found himself smiling too, thoughts of relief and satisfaction flying through his head as a result of the knowledge that his book, which he had been working on for two years by that point, was finally fully written.

"Guess what's finally complete." Dipper prompted his twin, swinging his legs under the desk, feeling energised from both fulfillment, and from the many cups of coffee he had drunk to fuel the last frantic spree of writing he had made to finish the draft.

"Holy shit, you finished writing it?" Mabel leant forwards in her chair, her hands gripping the edge of her desk. She let out a sound that was part squeal, part laugh as Dipper nodded enthusiastically. "I'm so proud of you!" She paused, the legs of her chair thudding back and hitting the wooden floor of her room. "Wait, you didn't kill off the main character, did you?"

"Haha, nope, _definitely_ didn't go through with that or anything…" Dipper's voice trailed off sheepishly, and he reached up to rub at the back of his neck as Mabel narrowed her eyes at him.

"I changed my mind, I'm not proud of you. How could you do this to me." Mabel looked genuinely offended, and Dipper shrugged.

"I'm guessing saying it was necessary to the plot isn't a valid excuse?"

"Nope. Not at all." Mabel shook her head. "I can't believe you. I'm going to have to hang up on you. I can't believe you'd do that to your characters." Before Dipper could stop her, Mabel had swept down and ended the call. A few moments later, and Dipper found himself presented with a message of ' _MURDERER :(_ ' from his sister, causing him to roll his eyes and laugh quietly to himself.

Standing up from his chair and stretching with a wide yawn, Dipper grabbed his bag and headed out of the door to the Mystery Shack to visit Bill's apartment, sending the blonde a text to notify him that he would be coming. The brunet shoved his hands into his pockets to keep them warm, smiling to himself as he walked through the leaves that scattered the forest floor, his shoes crunching them as he stepped through them, the feeling of fulfillment lingering with him all the way to Bill's door. He raised his hand to knock, but the door swung open before he could reach it, Bill collapsing onto him and dragging him into the apartment, throwing his arms around the brunet's neck and pressing a quick kiss to his lips in greeting. Dipper attempted to move in order to reciprocate the hug, the sudden contact originally catching him by surprise, however the moment he shifted his position, he found himself with Bill's foot colliding with his shin and the blonde's voice hissing in his ear.

"Character murderer." Bill stepped away from him, frowning, prompting a sheepish-looking shrug from Dipper.

"I guess Mabel told you?" The brunet questioned, and Bill nodded, still looking comically angry.

"She warned me of your atrocities." Swiveling on his heel, the blonde fell backwards and collapsed back against Dipper, throwing a hand dramatically over his eyes as he was caught. "I don't think I can ever trust you again after this." Raising an eyebrow, Dipper loosened his grip on Bill and let him fall to the ground, earning a startled shout from the Youtuber. Dipper smiled slightly and watched as Bill used him as a support as he attempted to haul himself back to his feet. "You're a dick." he huffed indignantly as he found his footing again.

"You're too dramatic." Dipper's rebuttal prompted a smirk from Bill.

"You love it though."

"That's debatable." Bill clapped a hand against his chest over his heart and backed up with an exaggerated gasp

"How could you offend me like this?"

"I guess I'm just not a nice person?" Dipper suggested, shrugging. Bill raised his eyebrows skeptically.

"You couldn't hurt someone if you tried." He spoke teasingly, and Dipper huffed indignantly.

"I've been in fights before." He scowled at Bill as the blonde flopped down into an armchair, propping his feet up on the coffee table.

"I'll believe that one when I see it." Bill glanced over at him with lidded eyes, expression edging on smugness.

"Fight me then." The threat was issued half-heartedly, and Bill responded as such, barely moving where he lounged in the armchair.

"Nah." The Youtuber's voice was lazy, And he shifted to look across at Dipper with a smirk. "I'd rather kiss you."

"You going to do something about that then?" The brunet prompted, and Bill swung himself out of the chair, walking over to Dipper and leaning up on the tips of his toes, pressing his lips to the writer's own. The whole thing was slow and lazy; barely any movement between the two of them, Bill's fingers tangled loosely in Dipper's hair, Dipper's hands balanced on Bill's waist. They stood like that for a while, before Bill moved away.

"Happy, Pine Tree?" He grinned widely. "Anyway, I meant to ask- were you planning on doing anything to celebrate your accomplishments as a character murderer? We could probably invest in something nicer than takeaway pizza if you felt like it."

"I had something in mind, but I wasn't sure if you'd be okay with it." Dipper responded. "It'd involve going out somewhere, but," the brunet caught the unsure undertone that overcame Bill's grin, and quickly continued. "Don't worry, it wouldn't be anywhere that people could see us. I know a spot on the cliffs that looks over the entire town- I wanted you to come up there with me." Dipper clutched onto the bag slung over his shoulder, waiting for Bill's response.

"Okay, I guess I could deal with that." The uneasiness seemed to flood from the blonde's expression once again. "But if anyone spots us, I'm finding a snake and letting it feast on your eyes." Dipper rolled his eyes at Bill's statement.

"Could you not at least find something more pleasant than a snake to do it?"

Bill met up with Dipper at the edge of the forest just as night had begun to fall. The fur-lined collar of his coat was pulled up around his neck, hair ruffled slightly by the breeze, eyelids shimmering with golden eyeshadow, lined heavily with eyeliner. Dipper handed him a plastic bag full of food once he had approached, the blonde opening it up to peer inside as soon as he received it.

"That's a lot of popcorn," He regarded the contents of the bag with raised eyebrows. "Planning on blocking up the waterfall with it or something?"

"Well, I was hoping to eat it, but it seems that you might have other ideas." Dipper started to walk into the forest, leading Bill through the trees, engaging the Youtuber in quiet conversation as they followed the well-worn path into the forest, the ground growing muddy and sloping upwards as they headed up towards the cliffs. The sun had fully set by the time they reached the top, the sky turned inky black, scattered by pinprick stars and whisps of clouds, the moon casting a pale silvery light onto the rooftops below them.

Dipper set about constructing a campfire first, nudging the stones that littered the ground into a circle before dropping in kindling and striking a match, tending the flames while Bill flopped down onto the ground and began to pull food out of the bags, spreading cartons and packets across the grass, scrutinizing the contents of each using the light from his phone screen.

The campfire set up, Dipper settled down next to Bill, the blonde leaning against him and staring out over the treetops, a moment of silence falling upon them, before Bill spoke indignantly.

"Move the fuck over, you're blocking the sandwiches."

Once they had finished eating, Bill flopped down against the grass, blonde hair spreading out like a halo around his head, kicking his legs over the edge of the cliff, feet hanging out into the open air. Dipper mirrored him, tilting his head back to look up at the sky as he did so. Away from streetlights, the stars were fully visible above them both, a stretch of silver pinpricks broken up by thin whisps of cloud edged in moonlight, spiralling endless above them. The two of them lay in silence, the only sound being the rush of the waterfall that burst free of the cliff a little while away from them, a muffled splash of water and spray, and the light crackle of the campfire, bathing everything in orange light.

"The stars are so weird if you think about it," Dipper tilted his head to look at Bill as the man spoke and raised his hand to trace patterns between the constellations. "We all view them as being so romantic, but they're just burning balls of gas slowly setting fire to their own lifeforce millions of miles away." The blonde mused, looking up towards the sky intently. "Most of them are already dead, but they're still going to outlive all of us." He sat up and edged closer to the drop of the cliff, letting his legs swing further over the precipice, leaning right out over the gap.

"Maybe save the existentialism for after 1 am?" Dipper suggested good naturedly, pulling himself back into a sitting position before casting a cautionary glance in Bill's direction. "Maybe you shouldn't sit so close to the edge- you could fall off."

"Would you miss me if I did fall off?" Despite his question, Bill did seem to pay heed to Dipper's warning, shuffling back a little.

"Maybe," Dipper shrugged, flashing Bill a sly grin. "Only a little though."

"I'm hurt." The offended tone to the blonde's voice was over-exaggerated, showing that he hadn't taken the statement personally. "Taxidermy my corpse when I die would you?"

"I'll do that then sell you on Ebay." Dipper chuckled.

"If you died, I'd probably mind control everyone in this town to walk off the cliffs." Bill propped his chin up on his hands as he leaned forwards again and rested his elbows on his knees. "Y'know, just as a bit of stress relief."

"Well, I guess I'd better not die any time soon then." Taking the statement as a joke, the brunet smiled. "How would you manage the mind control?"

"I have my ways." Bill shrugged.

"Let me guess: got bored at 2am, went into the deep internet and came out the other side with an extensive knowledge of ritual sacrifice?" Dipper was speaking from experience.

"Yeah, sounds about right."

They sat and talked for a while longer, the campfire slowly dying down into glowing embers beside them, before Bill shuddered, clapping his hands together as if to warm them.

"Shit it's getting cold out here." The youtuber's breath clouded up from his mouth as he spoke, spiralling up into the air, and Dipper nodded in agreement.

"Want to head back home? It is pretty late." Dipper suggested, the noise of approval that Bill shot in his direction prompting him to stand up and stamp out the campfire embers, packing up the empty packets of food into the plastic bag. They left the clifftop hand in hand, stumbling back through the trees in the dark, parting ways with a kiss goodbye once they reached the Mystery Shack, Bill skipping away with a wave and a wide grin flashing towards Dipper.

The brunet was grateful for the warmth when he stepped back into the Mystery Shack, dropping the bags in the hallway and shrugging off his coat, heading into the office room to check his laptop. The bright light that the screen cast towards him caused him to squint as he adjusted his glasses and logged into his emails, a confused noise escaping him as his eyes flickered over an email from an address that was unfamiliar to him, scanning over the message that it contained, focused on the words.

 _Dipper Pines,_

 _My name is Cecelia Sutherland; I am a representative from the Dalton Institute for Natural Sciences. Your work in Gravity Falls has been brought to the attention of the Research Teams in our department of Scientific Anomalies, and we would like to present you with an opportunity._

 _We have been searching for a person to take up a two year contract with us as part of our research team, and we would like to give you the chance to take on that role. Your research into the scientific anomalies of Gravity Falls has shown to us that you have an interest in the subject, and we believe that you would make a valuable edition to the team._

 _Taking the role would require you to move from your current place of residence to a site closer to the Institute, situated in Wyoming. All accommodation costs would be covered for you by the institute. You would work with us for two years, before being able to return to your current way of life if you so wish._

 _Please note that we do not make this offer lightly- the institute is one of prestige, and it is rare that we would consider contacting someone like this. If you are interested, please read through the attached documents for more details, and respond to us as soon as possible._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Cecelia Sutherland  
Dalton Institute for Natural Sciences_

Dipper read over the email a second time, then a third, with a dazed expression. Clicking on the documents, he looked through those too, hands shaking as he scrolled down the page, taking in the information they presented to him. He sat back in the chair and thought, running possibilities through his head, before he leaned forwards again, hands flying over the keys, the small tapping noise each one made sounding loudly in his ears.

He barely considered what Bill would say in response as he typed out his response.

 _Cecelia Sutherland_

 _Thankyou very much for considering me for the job- It means a lot to me that you would view my research as something of interest. I would be delighted to accept your offer._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Dipper Pines_

The haze of happiness and sense of accomplishment only slipped away in the morning when he came to the realization that he would have to tell Bill he was leaving.

* * *

In case you couldn't tell, the final chapter is not going to be all plain sailing


	15. 15: Restarting

holy fuck it's finally done

so yeah this took too long- writer's block is awful and i'm honestly not even in the gravity falls fandom any more

but it's done

thanks to everyone who has supported this weird little fanfiction- I appreciate every comment, no matter how short, and I love you all for reading this far and putting up with my rambling and stupid plots

so I don't break tradition: yeah this chapter is still trash

I hope you enjoy

* * *

 **Chapter Fifteen**

Dipper promised himself that he would tell Bill the next day, but found himself incapable of doing so.

He approached him about it upon turning up to the Youtuber's apartment, opening his mouth to speak the moment he stepped in through the door.

"Hey, Bill, I need to tell you something." He forced his hands to stop shaking, but was unable to stop the tremors that shook them and resorted to pushing his hands into his pockets to hide them from view.

"Wait, let me guess; You killed a person?" Bill's grin caught him off guard, bright, dazzling and genuine, half delighted smile, half malicious smirk, and Dipper couldn't bring himself to force the words out, couldn't make himself say the things that would inevitably cause that smile to fade off his face. He swallowed to dismiss the lump in his throat, and displayed what he hoped was a decent portrayal of a smile.

"Yeah, that's it. I need some help hiding the body." The laugh Dipper received in response, and the pressure of Bill's hands against his arms as he found himself pulled into a kiss was enough to allow him to force the fact that he would have to leave out of his mind, at least for a little while.

He tried again the next day, but to much the same result, steadying himself with deep breaths outside, then forgetting everything when a nerf dart bounced off his forehead the moment he stepped through the door, and Bill's laughing form popped up from behind the kitchen table and took another shot at him, laughing and grinning, a sense of almost childish amusement that Dipper couldn't bear to think of ruining.

He ended up halting himself every time- refused to bring it up while the two of them were curled up next to the television, eating takeout food from paper plates, didn't mention it when they were attempting to make pancakes and Bill managed to get batter stuck to the ceiling, brushed the topic aside when they kept ducking offscreen during one of Bill's livestreams to steal brief kisses.

Dipper knew he was just making it more difficult for himself, that the longer he left it, the worse the collateral damage would be when he finally told him. But he just couldn't bear the thought of telling Bill the truth and seeing him as anything less than happy.

The time ticked down to the point when he would have to leave, but every time the words rose to his throat, Bill's smile, Bill's laugh and Bill's touch would cause them to falter and leave.

One week left. The calendar on the wall of the Mystery Shack proclaimed to Dipper how long he had to tell Bill, not enough time to ease him gently into the idea of being apart for so long. Dipper knew that if the Youtuber took the news badly, he would be unable to reach a resolution before he left. So he simply didn't tell him. He let the news sit inside of him like a weight that pressed down on his chest, as the days counted down.

He filmed his final video in Gravity Falls three days before he was due to leave, hoping that the finality to it would give him enough motivation to tell Bill the news of his departure.

The whole affair was almost nostalgic, as he dragged his camera equipment up to the hill in front of the Floating Cliffs where he filmed his very first video almost a year ago, on a wobbly makeshift tripod, having no idea what he was doing, or where posting that very first video would lead him- towards his new job, towards mIndscape, and then towards Bill.

All things he was very close to losing.

The filming wrapped up smoothly, and the editing process was fast and easy, but Dipper almost wished it wasn't- he wanted to prolong things as long as possible, causing him to pause and falter as he went to upload the video, hands held above the keyboard in a state of indecision before he forced himself to post it. The moment he did so, he slung his bag over his shoulder and was out the door, running towards Bill's apartment.

"What do you mean, 'Last Video'?" Bill questioned Dipper the moment he tumbled in through the door of his apartment, the question more confused than accusatory. Dipper paused, half to catch his breath, half to steel his nerves and work up the courage to say what he needed to say. "Did you run out of abnormalities to talk about, or are you just-"

"I'm leaving Gravity Falls." Dipper cut Bill off, immediately cursing himself for the harsh way in which the revelation came out.

"What do you mean?" The look of confusion on Bill's face slid into a much more hostile one, and Dipper could feel his words rising up and blocking his throat, causing his voice to shake.

"I got a job at an institution studying scientific anomalies," He tried to put the explanation gently, but Dipper could feel the tension in the room rising and rising with every word. "I got the news about a month ago and I'm leaving in 3 days to start work."

"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" Dipper could hear anger starting to show in Bill's voice, which in turn caused Dipper to start to feel a similar sense of annoyance.

"I know- I should have told you earlier. But there's no need to sound so angry about it." Frustration edged the brunet's voice as he spoke. "It's only a two year placement, and we'll still be able to skype and text. This job is the sort of thing I've wanted to do my entire life: would it really kill you to be at least a _little_ happy for me?" Dipper was past the point of frustration, the sharp-edged words flying out of him before he could even think to stop them.

"Yeah, this is great for you, but what about me?" Bill's voice rose in volume, betraying his own anger. "Did you even think about how I'd feel about this?"

"Stop being so clingy! You can survive without me, can't you?" Dipper could tell the hostility in the room was reaching its breaking point, that one of them would slip up and say something they didn't mean before too long. He knew he should stop before the argument got any worse, but he just couldn't, fueled by anger and spurred on by harsh words.

"I'm not being clingy! You know I'm insecure about relationships because so many of my previous ones went badly." Bill gestured aggressively towards Dipper as he spoke, anger showing in his movements as well as his voice.

"Yeah, and I'm starting to see why now." Dipper knew he had gone too far the moment the words left his mouth. Bill's expression turned cold, hands curling into fists by his sides as he glared at Dipper, then past him, towards the door.

"Get out." Bill's voice was low, an icy cold tone that Dipper had never heard- never wanted to hear- from Bill.

Dipper did as he was instructed to, and left.

For the remaining days leading up to his departure from Gravity falls, Dipper was a mess. He didn't leave the Mystery Shack out of fear of running into Bill, three days of sitting indoors in numb silence, not quite believing that things had gone so badly. The photos of himself and Bill that remained on his phone, a set of childish notes and drawings that Bill had stuck to his wall and he had never taken down, the boarded up glass in his window where Bill had thrown a rock through it; all of it just caused him to break down again, under the knowledge that he had ruined _everything_.

He only gathered up enough composure to think about trying to fix things while sitting in a gas station cafe, two hours away from Gravity falls, a cup of stale, quickly cooling coffee in one hand, his phone in the other.

 _'I'm so, so sorry'_ He knew the text wasn't enough, knew that it wouldn't just fix things immediately, knew that there was no way he could just pretend everything hadn't happened. But it was a start.

 _'I can't just forgive you immediately.'_ the response from Bill was fast, followed up quickly by a second text. _'But I will at some point.'_ A third text came through just as fast. _'I just need a bit of time._ ' And Dipper was fine with that.

 _'Take as much time as you need'_ The relief that filled Dipper was slightly bittersweet, but it was like honey compared to the crushing sense of guilt that had weighed down on him over the previous few days. He typed out a second message, hesitating briefly but sending it anyway. _'I still love you, you know.'_ worried that he had overstepped his boundaries, Dipper placed his phone back in his pocket, drank the cold remains of his coffee, and left the gas station.

When Dipper reached the Dalton Institute for Natural Sciences, He found one new message from Bill waiting from him.

 _'I guess I love you too.'_

* * *

Thankyou for reading


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